Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/427

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Legh
421
Le Grand

i. 304). The Bishop of Ely wrote approvingly of his proceedings (Letters and Papers, ix. 743). Legh went on to Bury, 4 Nov.; Westacre, 11 Nov., after West Dereham; Norwich, 19 Nov., Ipswich, 27 Nov.; and meeting Richard Layton [q. v.] at Lichfield at Christmas 1535 he proceeded with him to the northern visitation (for the route taken see under Layton, Richard).

The mastership of the hospital of Sherburn in Durham was granted to Legh on 14 Sept. 1535; he seems to have wasted the property of the house (cf. Surthes, Durham, i. 130, 131, 140). He also acquired the advowson of Birmingham from the abbey of Guisborough in March 1535-6; Caldre in Cumberland, a Cistercian abbey, was granted to him in 1538-9, and Nostell Priory in Yorkshire, with its cell at Stowkirke, in 1439-40. A letter of May 1536 (ib. x. 883) to Æpinus shows that he was acquainted with Melanchthon and Oldenthorp. In 1536 he assisted at the trial of Anne Boleyn. With the pilgrims of grace in 1536 he was as unpopular as his colleague Layton; they sang ballads about him (Legh is one of the three L's—Layton and Longland, bishop of Lincoln, were the other two—in the ballad in the 'Salley Papers'), and they hanged his cook. He meanwhile was busy taking money to the forces, and when the rebellion was over he tried the prisoners. On 11 March 1536-7, after the Duke of Norfolk had heard that Legh was scheming to get the mastership of the hospital of Burton Lazars, Leicestershire, he wrote that Legh was married, and added, 'Alas! what pity it were that such a vicious man should have the governance of that honest house!' (ib. xii. 1. 185). In August 1536 he had made a tour through the archdeaconries of Coventry and Stafford, and was much distressed by the 'open adultery' of the country gentlemen, but in 1537 he found that the people only needed good instruction. Some time in the early part of 1537 he became a master in chancery, and throughout 1538, 1539, and 1540 he was engaged in suppressing religious houses (for his itinerary see Dixon's Hist. of the Church of England, ii. 12, 13, 17, 50, 202). In 1543 Legh went from York to Canterbury to investigate the curious plot against Cranmer of that year [see under Cranmer, Thomas]. He was knighted at Leith by the Earl of Hertford, 11 May 1544, seemingly on the Scottish expedition. Legh died 25 Nov. 1545, and was buried in the church of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, London, where a fine tomb with a rhyming inscription was erected to his memory. His widow Joanna remarried Sir Thomas Chaloner the elder [q. v.], and died 11 Jan. 1556-7. Sir Thomas Legh is probably not identical with the Legh of Adlington whom Leland praises.

[Authorities quoted; Surtees's Durham; Cooper's Athenae Cantabr. i. 33; Narratives of the Reformation, ed. Nichols (Camd. Soc.), pp. 253, 282; Newcourt's Repertorium, i. 1762, ii. 606, 620; Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, i. 459; Wright's Three Chapters of Suppression Letters (Camd. Soc.) contains many of his letters; Wriothesley's Chron. (Camd. Soc.), i. 31; Metcalfe's Knights, p. 75; Froude's Hist. of Engl. vol. ii.; articles Layton, Richard, and authorities there quoted; Gasquet's Henry VIII and the English Monasteries, vol. i.]

LEGLÆUS, GILBERTUS (fl. 1250), writer on medicine. [See Gilbert the Englishman.]

LE GRAND, ANTOINE (d. 1699), Cartesian philosopher, a native of Douay, was attached at an early age to the English community of St. Bonaventure's convent in that city. There he became a Franciscan Recollect friar, and taught philosophy and divinity. Being sent on the English mission he resided for many years in Oxfordshire, and in 1695 he was tutor in the family of Mr. Farmer of Tusmore in that county (Wood, Athena Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 233). He lived a studious and retired life, and was the first philosopher who reduced the Cartesian method, of which he was a zealous partisan, to the method of the schools. Towards the close of his life he engaged in sharp controversies on metaphysical topics with John Sergeant, a secular priest. At the twenty-third chapter of his order, assembled in London on 9 July 1693, he was elected provincial, and he held that office till his death on 26 July 1699.

His works are: 1. Le Sage des Stoiques, ou l'Homme sans Passions. Selon les sentimens de Sénèque,' the Hague, 1662, 12mo; Lyons, 1666, 12mo. dedicated to Charles II. This work was reproduced anonymously, under the title of 'Les Caratères de l'Homme sans Passions, selon les Sentiments de Sénèque,' Paris. 1663, 1682, 12mo; Lyons, 1665, 12mo. An English translation by G. R, appeared at London, 1676, 8vo. 2. 'Physica,' Amsterdam, 1664, 4to. 3. 'L'Épicure Spirituel, ou l'Empire de la Volupté sur les Vertus,' Paris [1669?], 8vo. Rendered in English by Edward Cooke, 1676. 4. 'Philosophia Veterum e mente Renati Descartes, more scholastico breviter digesta,' London, 1671, 12mo. After being greatly augmented by the author, it was republished under the title of 'Institutio Philosophiae, secundum principia Renati Descartes, nova methodo adornata et explicata ad usum juventutis academico,' London, 1672, 8vo; 3rd edit, 1675, 8vo; 4th edit., 'auctior,' 1680, 4to;