Anne (d. 1757), third daughter of Joseph Collett of Hertford Castle, formerly governor of Fort St. George, by whom he had issue two sons, Edward and Joseph, and two daughters; Henrietta (1716-1766), who on 26 April 1768 became the second wife of John Howard (1726?-1790) [q. v.] the philanthropist, and Anne, married on 31 May 1764 to John Barnardiston, solicitor (will registered in P. C. C. 374, Hutton). Cole (Addit MS. 6820, f. 66) describes Leeds as 'a heavy, dull, plodding man, but a great lover of antiquity.'
His eldest son, Edward Leeds (1728-1803), master in chancery, born on 30 Nov. 1728, entered the Inner Temple on 22 Dec. 1743, and was called to the bar. In 1765 he was appointed sheriff for Cambridgeshire (Gent. Mag. 1708, p. 46). He owed much to the patronage of Lord Hardwicke, by whom he was made a master in chancery on 21 Jan. 1773 (Hardy, Cat. of Lords Chancellors, &c, p. 101). According to Cole (loc. cit.) Leeds was a 'most impertinent, pragmatical mortal,' and so bitter against the clergy that Cole had to remind him that his family had acquired their property entirely from the revenues of the church. Greatly to his disappointment his party persistently refused to nominate him M.P. for Cambridge, of which town he was sub-deputy-recorder. He was a candidate for the deputy-recordership, but was defeated by Charles Nalson Cole [q. v.] At length, on 31 March 1784, he was elected M.P. for Reigate, but vacated the seat in 1787. He died unmarried on 22 March 1803, and was succeeded at Croxton by his brother Joseph (Gent. Mag. 1803, pt. i. pp. 294, 379).
[Woolrych's Serjeants-at-Law, ii. 539-41; Lysons's Magna Britannia, vol. ii. pt. i. p. 174; Addit. MS. 6808, ff. 44, 45.]
LEEKE [See also Leake.]
LEEKE, Sir HENRY JOHN (1790?–1870), admiral, son of Samuel Leeke, a deputy-lieutenant of Hampshire, entered the navy in 1803, on board the Royal William, guardship at Spithead. It is probable that his service on board her was merely nominal, and that he did not actually go afloat till 1806, when he went out to the Mediterranean in the Iris frigate. He afterwards served in the Royal Sovereign, flagship of Vice-admiral Edward Thornbrough [q. v.], and in the Terrible with Captain Lora Henry Paulet. As midshipman of the Volontaire he commanded a boat on the night of 31 Oct. 1809, when four armed vessels and seven merchant ships were taken from under the batteries in the Bay of Rosas by the boats of the squadron. He was afterwards serving in the Persian when he was promoted to be lieutenant on 24 Nov. 1810. She brought home a large number of prisoners, who attempted one night to take possession of the ship. No one was on deck but Leeke and a quartermaster, but snatching up cutlasses, they stopped the rush of the Frenchmen, and kept them at bay till assistance arrived. He continued serving, chiefly in the Mediterranean, during the war, and was promoted to be commander on 15 June 1814. From 1819 to 1822 he commanded the Myrmidon sloop on the west coast of Africa, where he was actively employed, on different occasions, in reducing the native kings to order and obedience. For assistance rendered to a wrecked schooner he received a gold medal from the Portuguese government. In 1824 he was appointed to the Herald yacht, in which he took out the Bishops of Barbadoes and Jamaica, and thus had the opportunity of bringing home from the Havana a freight of upwards of a million dollars in specie. He was advanced to post rank on 27 May 1826. On 1 April 1835 he was knighted, in recognition of his services on the coast of Africa, and on 25 Jan. 1836 he was nominated a K.H. From 1845 to 1848 he was flag-captain to Admiral Sir John West at Devonport, and in 1852 was appointed superintendent and commander-in-chief of the Indian navy. The duties of the office were principally administrative; but when the war with Persia broke out in November 1856 he assumed the command of the squadron which convoyed the troops to the Persian Gulf, covered their landing, and on 10 Nov. drove the enemy out of Bushir in a four hours' bombardment. In March 1857, on the expiration of five years, he returned to England. He had been promoted to the rank of rear-admiral on 15 April 1854; on 1 Oct. 1858 he was nominated a K.C.B, He became a vice-admiral on 2 May 1860, and admiral on 11 Jan. 1864. He died in February 1870. He married in 1818 a daughter of James Dashwood of Parkhurst in Surrey.
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biog. Dict.; Ann. Reg. 1856, vol. xcviii. pt. i. p. 265; Low's Hist. of the Indian Navy, ii. 240-382; Times, 28 Feb. 1870.]
LEEKE, LAURENCE (d. 1357), prior of Norwich, was appointed prior by William Bateman (d. 1355) [q. v.], the bishop, on 24 April 1352. He was vicar-general for Bateman in 1352 and 1355, and died in December 1357. He composed 'Historiola de Vita et Morte Reverendi domini Willelmi Bateman Norwicensis episcopi,' once preserved at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, but now
