Some Account of the Legge Family resident in East Anglia, COMMUNICATED BY THE REV. A. G. LEGGE, M. A. Collins, in his Historic Peerage of England, states that the junior branch of the Legges, which descended from John, second son of Thomas Legge, who lived in the reign of Edward III., settled in Norfolk. The following paper is an attempt to give some account, gathered from ancient charters which have lately come to light, of certain members of the family who held property in South Creake and Syderstone, together with notes respecting others, who from time to time were connected with East Anglia. The family of Legge or De Lezze sprang originally, as the name indicates, from Italy. Several of its members were resident in Naples and other Italian cities, especially in Venice, whither they removed from Ravenna about the end of the tenth century. "Such," says Collins, "was their noble descent, and so great their wealth, that they were thought worthy of a place among the Patricians in the year 1297." They resided, according to the census of 1379, in S. Geovanni Nuovo, 1 Fifth Edition, vol. iv., p. 295. near S. Barnaba, and at S. Giminiano, and afterwards went to live at the Misericordia at S. Samuele. Luca De Lezze was buried in S. Stefano in 1475, and Priamo De Lezze at the Cruciferi, opposite the church of the Gesuits, in 1506, where also Andrea and Geovanni were buried in 1573. The De Lezze of the Misericordia were possessed of a magnificent palace, which, with another on the Grand Canal, may be seen to this day.' At what period they came over to England is not known, but Hugh De Lezze was sheriff of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire from the 10th to the 16th Henry II., and William De Lezze was sheriff of Herefordshire in the 17th Henry II. The Herefordshire Legges, from whom Thomas Legge, the first Lord Mayor of London, was descended, were the elder branch; although others who resided at Legge's Place near Tunbridge, Kent, were there many generations before his time. He held the office of Lord Mayor in 1346, and again in 1353, and lent Edward III. £300, a considerable sum in those days, to enable him to carry on the war with France. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, K.G., and they had two sons, namely, Simon, from whom the present Earl of Dartmouth is lineally descended, and John. John was Knight of the Shire for Surrey 2nd Richard II., and had issue. He was in the Tower of London with Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1381, and was surprised there by Wat Tyler and his rebels, who seized him and beheaded him on Tower Hill. It is from him, as I have already stated, that the Norfolk Legges sprang, and amongst them Dr. Thomas 1 For information respecting the De Lezze, I am indebted to the courtesy of the Librarian of the Palace of the Doges, Venice. Legge, Master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, is specially mentioned by Collins. He was a man of some note, eminent for his learning, and known as a correspondent of Justus Lipsius. He was born in Norwich in 1535, and was the second of three sons of Stephen Legge, by Margaret, daughter of William Larke. He entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in November, 1552, but shortly after migrated to Trinity, of which he became scholar in 1555. He took his B.A. degree in 1566-7, became a Fellow of Trinity, and was incorporated at Oxford in the same year. He proceeded M.A. in 1570, and LL.D. 1575. He had previously, in 1568, become Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, where he was noted as an active tutor with a preference in religious matters for the Romish Faith. On the 27th June, 1573, he succeeded Dr. Caius as Master of Caius College. In addition to all this he was an Advocate of Doctor's Commons, a Master in Chancery, Commissary to the University, the King's Law Professor, and twice ViceChancellor. Like his friend, Dr. Caius, he was distinguished as an antiquary. He was the writer of two tragedies; the one, entitled The Destruction of Jerusalem, having been filched from him by a plagiarist just as it was about to be put upon the boards, was afterwards acted at Coventry; the other, Ricardus Tertius, was received with great applause at Cambridge. It was played in St. John's College in 1579. In this Palmer, afterwards Dean of Peterborough, was Richard, and Nathaniel Knox, eldest son of the Reformer, was Hastings. This play is alluded to by Harington in his Apologie of Poetry as a famous tragedy, and by Nash in his Have with you to Saffron Walden. It was probably the one which the Cambridge men requested Burghley to substitute in 1592-3 for the English comedy, which the Queen had asked for. MSS. of this play exist at Emmanuel, Caius College, and in the University Library. It is also amongst the Harleian and Phillips' collections, and was edited from the Emmanuel MS. for the Shakespeare Society by Barron Field in 1844. In 1875 Mr. Hazlitt printed it in Vol. V. of his edition of Collier's Shakespeare's Library. Legge's erratic conduct at Caius brought him sometimes into trouble, and about 1581 he seems to have been committed to the Fleet for treating with contempt certain letters of the Queen, which no doubt had reference to the encouragement given by him to Romanists in his college, he having on one occasion procured the election to a fellowship of a certain Depup, a Roman Catholic. The fellows of Caius resented his conduct in this respect, and made it the subject of an accusation in a letter to Burghley on the 31st January, 1581. He was also charged with misappropriating the college funds, and with using "continuall and expressive loud singinge and noyse of organs," to the disturbance of the students. He died on the 12th July, 1607, having left by will a sum of money to be expended in building the side of the new court in Caius College by S. Michael's Church, and was laid to rest in the College Chapel. On the south side is a monument having a canopy and his effigy, kneeling in his doctor's robes, his hands upraised, and a book on the desk before him. Underneath is inscribed :-Thomas Legge Legum Doctor Quondam Custos Hujus Collegij Obiit Anno Domini 1607, 12 Die Jvlij Etatis Suæ 72. Between the two columns of this inscription two hands are represented supporting a heart, and underneath are the words: Junxit amor vivos, sic jungat terra sepultos, Moriendo vivit. These verses were, no doubt, added by Dr. John Gostlin, his great friend and afterwards Master of the "That love, that living, made us two but one, And Gostlin hopes to meet him once again." On the top are Legge's arms, viz.:-Or, a cross flore sab., and under the following legend :— 6 "Col, Legame, Della, Legge.' Blomefield, in a foot note, states his inability to give the meaning of these words, but Dr. John Venn of Cambridge, who most kindly replied to a query of mine upon the subject, is of opinion "that the words are a punning expression, in rather questionable Italian, of the sentiment with the Union of Laws.'" The name Legge and the fact that Dr. Thomas was "Legum Doctor," would give some appropriateness to this interpretation. See Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xxxii. p. 413, edition 1892; also Blomefield's History of Norfolk, vol. iii. pp. 301-2. " CALENDAR OF CHARTERS RELATING TO THE LEGGES OF SOUTH CREAKE & SYDERSTONE. 1. Richard Athelwald and John Legge, both of 'Southcreyk," grant twelve acres of land "apud Crosdyk" in the same to John Richeman and Margaret his wife, of "Northcreyk," sc. ten acres and one rod "apud Crosdyk iux tram Johis Barkere" to the west; sup Crosdyk" to the south; and "sup Pram quondam Robti |