Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Legh, Alexander
LEGH, ALEXANDER (d. 1501), ambassador, appears to have been born in Scotland. He was educated at Eton and elected to King's College, Cambridge, in 1450. On 22 May 1468, being then M.A., he was collated to the rectory of Fen Ditton, Cambridgeshire, but resigned before 23 April 1473. In 1469 he became canon of Winasor. In September 1470 Legh and Alexander Carlisle, sergeant of the minstrels, gave Edward IV, then near Nottingham, information of the treason of the Marquis of Montagu [see under Neville, John, Marquis of Montagu, d. 1471, and Edward IV], and thus probably saved the king's life, a service which Edward did not fail to reward. On 14 Sept. 1471 Legh became prebendary of Grindall in York Minster, and on 26 Sept. 1471 he was made rector of St. Bride's, London, by the abbot and convent of Westminster; he resigned St. Bride's in 1485. He was also appointed king's almoner and proceeded LL.D. In 1474 and subsequent years he was employed in embassies to Scotland, In 1478 he became prebendary of Barnby in the church of Howden, Yorkshire, but resigned in the following year. He had a patent 26 May 1480, allowing him to live in England though born in Scotland, and this, if indeed it refers to the ambassador, was confirmed on 17 Aug. 1484. In 1481-2 he became one of the councillors for Berwick-on-Tweed, and in December 1483 he was appointed with George Bird as royal commissioners to survey the walls and bridge of Newcastle-on-Tyne. In 1484, when he seems to have been living at Ougham in Kent, he was a commissioner to carry out the truce with Scotland, in 1490 he was temporal chancellor of Durham Cathedral, and in 1493 he was rector of Spofforth in Yorkshire, though he seems from a letter in the 'Plumpton Correspondence' to have been non-resiaent. Legh aied in the early part of 1501.
[Athenæ Cantabr. i. 520; 9th Rep. Deputy-Keeper of Public Records, App. ii. pp. 57, 101; Plumpton Correspondence (Camd. Soc.), pp. 52, 105.]