Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/108

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Leslie
102
Leslie

leave the people among whom he had worked so long. He has recorded that he found the restored church of Ireland torn by schism, the Scriptures ousted by merely human words: papists raging on one side and puritans on the other (ib. p. 144), The bishop was recommended by Charles II to the special consideration of the Irish House of Commons, and 2,000l. were voted to him. In returning thanks, he hoped 'that whatever the house hath given to a prophet may receive a prophet's reward.' It may have been this grant which enabled him to buy Glasslough in Monaghan, where his descendants are still seated. It was one of the many forfeited estates which had been granted to Sir Thomas Ridgeway, and several families seem to have acquired interests in the lands (ib. p. 137; Rawdon Papers, Nos. 14 and 29). Among these, perhaps, were the Cunninghams, for the Leslie family historian says that the bishop's wife was heiress of Glasslough. At all events it became his property, and the town was long known as Castle-Leslie. Many improvements were made by him, and at his death on 8 Sept. 1671, he transmitted his estate to his children. He was buried there in the church of St. Saviour, which he had founded. The slab which covered his remains has been preserved: it records that the bishop died a centenarian, that he was a doctor of divinity and laws, and that he was a privy councillor to three kings. Bishop Maxwell of Kilmore composed an epitaph which notes the chief points of his career (ib. pp. 145, 296).

In 1638, when he was near seventy, the bishop was married very happily, as he himself records (ib. p. 144), to Catherine, daughter of Alexander Cunningham, dean of Raphoe. The lady was only eighteen. They had ten children, of whom John, the eldest surviving son, was dean of Dromore. The sixth son was Charles [q. v.], the famous nonjuror. Bishop Leslie wrote an unpublished treatise on 'Memory,' but his library and collections perished in the Jacobite civil war. Some relics are still preserved at Glasslough, including a few books, which are theological with one exception—Rabelais.

[Wood's Athenae Oxon, and Festi Oxon. ed. Bliss; Historical Records of the Leslie Family; Shirley's History of Monaghan; Ware's Bishops ed. Harris; Cotton's Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernica; Ninian Wallis's Britannia Libera; Berwick's Rawdon Papers; Bramhall's Works, Oxford edit.: Charles Leslie's Works, Oxford edit.; Reid's History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, ed. Killen; Robert Baillie's Letters, ed. Laing; information from Sir John Leslie, the bishop's lineal descendant.]

R. B-l.

LESLIE, JOHN, seventh Earl and first Duke of Rothes (1630-1681), eldest son of John, sixth earl [q. v.], by his wife, Lady Anne Erskine, was born in 1630. His mother died when he was ten, and on his father's death in the following year he succeeded to the peerage. He was placed under the care of John. earl of Crawford [see Lindsay, John, John, tenth Lord Lindsay and seventeenth Earl of Crawford], to whose daughter he was betrothed. On account of the wars his education was much neglected. 'He had,' says Burnet, 'no advantage of education, no sort of literature; nor had he travelled abroad; all in him was mere nature' (Own Time, ed. 1839, p. 71), He was one of the first noblemen to wait on Charles II on his arrival from Breda in 1650, and on 20 Dec. was appointed colonel of one of the Fife regiments of horse (Balfour, Annuals, iv. 210). At the coronation of the king at Scone he carried the sword of state. In command of his regiment, he accompanied the Scots army under David Leslie into England. and was taken prisoner at the battle of Worcester on 3 Sept. 1651. On the 18th he was commiited to the Tower (Cal. State Papers. Dom. Ser. 1651. p. 432). On 18 July 1652 his liberty was extended to ten miles from the city of London (ib. 1651-2, p. 349) On 14 Dec. 1652 he was permitted, on heavy security, to go to Scotland on business for three months (ib. 1652-3, p. 25); similar permission was granted in 1653 and 1654; in 1654-5 he was permitted to stay six months at Newcastle. On 8 Jan. 1656-7 he obtained leave, owing, it is told, to the influence of Elizabeth Murray, countess of Dysart, to visit Scotland again (ib. 1656-7. p. 238). In January 1658 he was, however, committed to the castle of Edinburgh by Cromwell, to prevent a duel between him and Viscount Morpeth, who was jealous of the attentions which Rothes paid his wife ; he was released in the following December.

Rothes crossed over to visit the king at Breda in 1650, and accompanied him on his return to England, when the new ministry was formed in Scotland, he was appointed president of the council 'by the joint consent,' according to Sir George Mackenzie, 'of all the opposite parties' (Memoirs, p. 8). For some years be enjoyed the king's special confidence, and faithfully executed the King's orders. Notwithstanding his imperfect education he possessed a 'ready dexterity in the management of affairs' (Burnet, Own Time, p. 20), and according to Mackenzie, 'the subtlety of his wit obliged all to court his friendship' (Memoirs, p. 8). On 1 June 1661 he was named a lord of session and ap-