Welsh Journals

THE LEACH FAMILY OF CASTLEMARTIN Roland Thorne, M.A. The Leach family of Corston near Pembroke was one of the established county families of Pembrokeshire in the Victorian era; a century before, they were just emerging from the ranks of the native yeomanry. Like many other of the immigrant families of 'Little England beyond Wales', their entry into the county is unchartered, their origins obscure, and no attempt is made to trace them in the relevant issues of Burke's Landed Gentry, which go no further back than the eighteenth century. By Queen Elizabeth's reign, the sur- name (or some variant of it) appears in Pembrokeshire records, not for the first time but in such a way as to suggest that its bearers were more than passing strangers. Whether Henry Liche, feltmaker of Haverfordwest in 1587 and hatter in 1594, had any connexion with Samuel Leech, an exorbitant ratepayer of Haverfordwest in 1650 (Calendar of Records of Haverfordwest pp. 31, 92) and whether either had any link with the Leach family resident in the hundred of Castlemartin at the time is not known, but it is the latter we are primarily concerned with here. For this reason, the Leach family which flourished at Tenby subsequently has also been omitted from this account. According to family tradition, the earliest known ancestor was Thomas Leche, reeve of Castlemartin in 1480. In 1527, certainly, Robert Leche of Castlemartin appeared at the hundred court as a customary tenant of 28 acres. He or a tenant of John Perrot of Scotsborough at St. Michael, Pembroke, Philip Leach, who flourished in 1567, seems to be the most likely ancestor of the Leaches of Castlemartin. John Leach of Castlemartin con- tributed three shillings to the subsidy of 1609, while in 1625 Philip Leach of St. Twynnels contributed eight shillings in goods to the subsidy. This Philip features as a yeoman of St. Twynnels in a deed of 1613 in the Cawdor muniments (which also reveal the existence of Robert Leach of Stackpole, witness to a deed in 1615, and Ales Leach widow and Thomas Leach fisher- man, of Bosherston flourishing in 1620, while the Plea Rolls reveal the ex- istence of John Leeche, husbandman of Manorbier and Jennet his wife in 1620.) Philip Leach of St. Twynnels was also joint high constable of Castlemartin with John Poyer in 1629, when they petitioned against the high rate assessment on the parishes of their hundred. (Vairdre Book fl04b: published in Arch. Camb. (1905 p. 312.) Henry Leach of 'Lowlenslade', Castlemartin, yeoman, who appears under that designation in Cawdor deeds of 1618 and 1621, places us on firmer ground. His will, signed by mark, made on 17 March 1651 and proved on 13 April 1653, survives, as well as an inventory of his effects dated 16 September 1652. He describes himself therein as of Slade, Castlemartin, and mentions his wife, Abra, his brother William and four children. The eldest son was Henry; the others were Thomas, Richard and Abra. The testator mentions his grandchildren Margaret, John, Richard and Henry Leach, John Leach 'the younger' and Elizabeth Leach, as well as Margaret, Philip and John Leach, children of his son Richard: of whom Margaret and John were perhaps twice mentioned, both as testator's grandchildren and, specifically, as Richard's children. Henry Leach's widow and co-executrix, Abra, appears in a Cawdor deed of 1657, as do Jenet Leach widow, and John Leach, husbandman, of Castlemartin. Before pursuing Henry Leach's family any further, it may be worth remarking that twelve individuals of the name of Leach appear in the hearth