| Description | Deeds to properties in Broxton, Carden, Chester, Chorlton by Backford, Farndon, Stretton, Thingwall and Tilston 1317-1693; accounts, rentals and legal papers 1442-1777; family settlements, wills and personal papers and correspondence 1470-1784; inventories 1500-1799. The collection includes some 16th century papers relating to the radical Protestant thinker Christopher Goodman and Puritanism. |
| Administrative History | The ancient family of Leche once owned Chatsworth in Derbyshire. It is not certain when the Leches settled in Carden, possibly about the mid fourteenth century. The family acquired a share of the Carden estates by marriage with Eleanor de Cawarden, co heiress, in the early fifteenth century. There were cadet branches in Nantwich and Mollington. Twelve generations of the family in Carden had a John Leche as the main landowner.
The Leches gained lands in Stretton in the early eighteenth century when the Rev Thomas Leche, rector of Tilston, married the heiress Catherine Wright.
Carden once formed part of the barony of Malpas and it is possible that a court was held for Carden manor, within the jurisdiction of Malpas court leet. It was discontinued by the nineteenth century, by which time the Hurleston Leches had become the owners. [See Ormerod's "History of the County Palatine of Chester", vol.II, pp.698 703 for further background detail and pedigree, and article in "Cheshire Life", vol.16, Apr 1950, pp.18 19 for detailed discussion of Leche family descent].
Liverpool University Library holds a Leche family notebook, 16th century. |