THE LEIGH PEERAGE, AND STONELEY ESTATES, WARWICKSHIRE
The fifth Lord Leigh left his estates to his sister, the Hon. Mary Leigh, for her life, and at her decease without issue to "the first and nearest of his kindred, being male, and of his name and blood," &c. On the death of Mrs. Mary Leigh in 1806, the estates were taken possession of by her very distant kinsman, the Rev. Thomas Leigh. The first person to dispute his right to them was Mr. George Smith Leigh, who claimed them as being descended from a daughter of Sir Thomas Leigh, son of the first Baron Leigh. His claim was not allowed, because he had the name of Leigh only by royal license, and not by inheritance. Subsequently, the Barony of Leigh was claimed by another Mr. George Leigh, of Lancashire, as descended from a son of the Hon. Christopher Leigh (fourth son of the aforesaid Sir Thomas Leigh), by his second wife. His claim was disallowed when heard by a committee of the House of Lords in 1828, because he could not prove the second marriage of Christopher Leigh, nor the birth of any son by such marriage.