naturalist.’ He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1817, and was also a member of the Linnean and of numerous other learned societies in England, France, and America.
Leach's works are:
- ‘The Zoological Miscellany, being Descriptions of new or interesting Animals.’ Illustrated with excellent plates, drawn and coloured by R. P. Nodder, London, 1814–17, 3 vols. 8vo. A supplement to Shaw and Nodder's ‘Naturalist's Miscellany.’ ‘The copies,’ says Lowndes, ‘vary very much in the quality of colouring.’
- ‘Malacostraca Podophthalma Britanniæ, or a Monograph on the British Crabs, Lobsters, Prawns, and other Crustacea with pedunculated eyes,’ with plates by J. Sowerby, Nos. 1 to 17, London, 1815–16, 4to.
- ‘Systematic Catalogue of the Specimens of the indigenous Mammalia and Birds that are preserved in the British Museum, with the Localities and Authors, to which is added a list of the described species that are wanting to complete the collection of British Mammalia and Birds,’ 1816, 4to. Originally an official publication, this work was reprinted for the Willoughby Society in 1882.
- ‘A Synopsis of the Mollusca of Great Britain, arranged according to their natural affinities and anatomical structure.’ Dedicated to Savigny, Cuvier and Poli, and edited posthumously by J. E. Gray in 1852, 8vo. Though not published until the last-mentioned date, pp. 1–116 and the plates were in type, and some copies were circulated as early as 1820, a circumstance which gives validity to Leach's names.
Leach also described the animals taken by Cranch in the expedition of Captain Tuckey to the Congo, and was the author of articles on crustacea in the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica’ and ‘Edinburgh Encyclopædia,’ in addition to numerous papers in the ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ the ‘Zoological Journal,’ ‘Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles,’ &c. Thirty-one papers are placed to his credit in the ‘Royal Society Catalogue,’ while between 1810 and 1820 he contributed to the ‘Transactions of the Linnean Society’ seven papers; three on insects; a general arrangement of the crustacea, myriapoda, and arachnides, a very laborious work; two descriptive of ten new genera of bats, one of three new species of Glareola. There are several of his letters in autograph in the British Museum Library (Add. MSS. 32166 f. 108, 32441 ff. 7, 51).
[London and Edinburgh Philosophical Mag. July 1837; Neville Wood's Naturalist, ii. 284; Milne-Edwards's Histoire Naturelle des Crustacés, Introduction, xxiii–v; Thomas's Universal Dict. of Biog. iii. 1386; Imperial Dict. of Biog.; Maunder's Biog. Treas. Suppl. p. 578; Larousse's Dict. Univ.; notes kindly supplied by B. B. Woodward, esq., of the Natural History Museum.]
LEAD or LEADE, Mrs. JANE (1623–1704), mystic, was daughter of Schildknap Ward, who belonged to a good Norfolk family (Jaeger). She was educated like other girls, but is said to have heard at a very early age a miraculous voice amidst the Christmas gaieties at her father's house, and thenceforth devoted herself to a religious life. All attempts on the part of her family to divert her mind from its serious bent failed At twenty-one she married her kinsman, William Lead, who was six years her senior. He died not long after, leaving one daughter, Barbara. Mrs. Lead appears to have lived after her husband's death in the greatest seclusion in London.
Her early tendency to mysticism was increased by a study of the works of Jacob Boehm, in the English translations of 1645- 1661. She was deeply impressed by his mystic, revelations, and experienced almost nightly prophetic visions, which she recorded from April 1670 in her spiritual diary, entitled 'A Fountain of Gardens.' Mrs. Lead probably made the acquaintance of Dr. John Pordage [q. v.] about 1670, and published in 1681 and 1683 respectively two books, 'The Heavenly Cloud, a treatise on death and resurrection, by some considered her best work, and 'The Revelation of Revelations,' an account of her visions. It appears from the title-page of the latter that she was then living 'in Bartholomew Close.' At the time her books attracted little notice, but about 1693 one of them reached Holland, and was translated into Dutch and German by Fischer of Rotterdam, who commenced a correspondence with the author. Mrs. Lead's reputation in Holland was at once established, and Francis Lee [q. v.], a young Oxford scholar, returning through Holland from his travels, was commissioned to seek her out in England, and obtain further writings.
Lee made her acquaintance, and, soon convinced of her piety, was adopted by her as her son and adviser. She became blind, and all her correspondence passed through Lee's hands. In obedience to what was alleged to be a divine order (Walton, Law, pp. 226-7), Lee married her daughter, then a widow (Mrs. Walton), wrote many works from Mrs. Lead's dictation, and edited them, with prefaces of his own, and some occasional verses by Richard Roach [q. v.] An influential body of theosophists calling themselves Philadelphians gathered around Lee and the prophetess in London, and many members were to be found in Holland and Germany. In
