Leslie Gendex

This Gendex contains entries for the Leslie (Leslay, Lesly, Lesslie) family, descendents of Felicity's sixth great grandfather, David.

Name (Married)Birth/Christening DateBirth/Christening LocationDeath/Burial DateDeath/Burial Location
David Leslay (Lesly) Before 1675
4 JAN 1694 Kettins, Angus, Scotland, UK
David Leslay (Leslie, Lesly) 17 JUN 1692 Kettins, Angus, Scotland, UK 17 SEP 1771 Kettins, Angus, Scotland, UK
Annie Brown Leslie [Frank] OCT-DEC 1865 Knaresborough, Yorkshire WR, UK 20 FEB 1928 Helmsley, Yorkshire NR, UK
Betsey (Betsy) Leslie 12 JUN 1855 Dundee, Angus, Scotland, UK 24 MAY 1878 Dundee, Angus, Scotland, UK
Charles Leslie 6 JUN 1809 Kettins, Angus, Scotland, UK

David Leslie (Leslay, Lesly) 17 JUN 1692 Kettins, Angus, Scotland, UK 17 SEP 1771 Kettins, Angus, Scotland, UK
David Leslie (Lesly) 6 SEP 1724 Kettins, Angus, Scotland, UK 3 MAY 1803 Kettins, Angus, Scotland, UK
David Leslie 22 FEB 1761 Kettins, Angus, Scotland, UK After 1809
Donald Stuart Leslie 11 DEC 1902 Blackpool, Lancashire, UK 11 FEB 1968 Blackpool, Lancashire, UK
Elizabeth Leslie [Smith] 27 FEB 1774 Kettins, Angus, Scotland, UK After 1806
Felicity Ruth Leslie [Croucher] 4 APR 1946 Blackpool, Lancashire, UK After 1982
Jannet Leslie (Leslay, Lesly) 11 MAR 1722 Kettins, Angus, Scotland, UK

John Leslie (Lesslie) 13 APR 1800 Peattie, Kettins, Angus, Scotland, UK 1865 Dundee, Angus, Scotland, UK
John Leslie 16 JAN 1852 Dundee, Angus, Scotland, UK 21 JAN 1914 Dundee, Angus, Scotland, UK
John Duncan Leslie 20 AUG 1947 Blackpool, Lancashire, UK 19 JAN 1994 Bristol, Avon, UK
Joseph Foster Leslie 17 DEC 1903 Blackpool, Lancashire, UK 21 FEB 1983 Blackpool, Lancashire, UK
Phyllis Margaret Leslie [Chadwick] 18 MAY 1897 Armley, West Riding, Yorkshire, UK 20 AUG 1989 Southport, Merseyside, UK
Shirley Anne Leslie 7 DEC 1932 Bispham, Lancashire, UK

William Duncan Leslie (Lesslie) Circa 1842 Dundee, Angus, Scotland, UK 14 JAN 1881 St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland, UK
William Clemishaw Leslie 30 JAN 1871 Knaresborough, Yorkshire, UK 25 MAR 1945 Blackpool, Lancashire, UK
David Lesly (Leslay) Before 1675
4 JAN 1694 Kettins, Angus, Scotland, UK
David Lesly (Leslay, Leslie) 17 JUN 1692 Kettins, Angus, Scotland, UK 17 SEP 1771 Kettins, Angus, Scotland, UK
David Lesly (Leslie) 6 SEP 1724 Kettins, Angus, Scotland, UK 3 MAY 1803 Kettins, Angus, Scotland, UK
Name Birth
Location
Death
Location

The only early entry I can find in Kettins is the Marriage of Margaret Lesly and John Declars on 31 May 1674, and possibly James Likly and Margaret Moncrief on 31 October 1707.

The following information comes from Electric Scotland: The founder of the Leslie family was a Hungarian named Bartolf, or Bartholomew, who is said to have come to Scotland in the train of Edgar Atheling and his sisters, one of whom (the Princess Margaret) became the wife of Malcolm Canmore. Bartolf seems to have been a man of vigorous intellect as well as of great bodily strength—qualities highly prized in an age when might too often made right. He became a great favourite at the Scottish Court, and obtained in marriage the hand of one of Malcolm’s sisters, along with the governorship of Edinburgh Castle and extensive grants of land in Aberdeenshire, Angus, and Fife. As is the case in regard to most of our old Scottish families, there are various traditions respecting the origin of the name which the descendants of the founder of the house assumed, and of the family arms and motto; but there is every reason to believe that the Leslies derived their patronymic from the lands of Lesselyn, in the district of Garioch, in Aberdeenshire. Here they erected their first seat, the Castle of Leslie, on the banks of the Gaudy, at the back of the celebrated hill of Bennachie.

The Leslies were a stalwart race, strong in body and mind, and in these days of ‘rugging and riving’ contrived to obtain a large share both of territory and influence, not only in Scotland but in several Continental countries. No Scottish surname, indeed, has been more widely known than theirs, or more famous, on the Continent. Five generals of the name of Leslie commanded the armies of Scotland, Germany, Sweden, and Russia about the same time. Two counts of the Balquhain Leslies were field-marshals in the service of the Emperor of Germany. A junior member of this branch was a field-marshal in the army of Gustavus Adolphus. A member of the Rothes line, after serving under the same monarch, was a lieutenant-general in the army which the Scottish Parliament sent to the assistance of the English Parliament against Charles I. Major-General David Leslie contributed greatly to turn the tide of battle on Marston Moor, and at Philiphaugh he avenged on Montrose the series of defeats which the great Marquis had inflicted on the Covenanters at Alford, Turriff, and Kilsyth. Another Leslie became a general in the Russian service, and was made Governor of Smolensko. The Leslies were distinguished as men of the gown as well as men of the sword. John Leslie, Bishop of Ross, was eminent for his historical ability, and still more for his devoted adherence to the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots. William Leslie, of the Warthill branch, was Prince-Bishop of Laybach and a Privy Councillor of the Empire. No fewer than four members of the Wardis and Rothes branches were bishops of the Irish Episcopal Church, and the Rev. Charles Leslie, son of one of these bishops, and a ‘reasoner,’ as Dr. Johnson said, ‘who was not to be reasoned against,’ was the author of the celebrated ‘Short and Easy Method with Deists,’ and other works on the evidence of Christianity, which have been pronounced on high authority ‘the best books of their kind.’ Sir John Leslie, the well-known Edinburgh Professor, enjoyed a European reputation as a mathematician and a philosopher; and Charles R. Leslie was one of the most eminent painters of the present day.

Sir Norman, the fifth in descent from the Hungarian Bartolf, appears to have been the first of the family who assumed the surname of Lesselyn, or Leslie. Previous to this time, the usual designation of their chief was the ‘Constable of Inverurie.’ Sir Norman’s name is found in the ‘Ragman’s Roll,’ and in other documents connected with the Scottish War of Independence. His son and grandson were staunch adherents of Robert Bruce and David II., and shared in their perils and privations, and ultimate success of their struggles with the Baliols and their English supporters. David, the fourth in succession to the barony of Leslie, joined one of the Crusades towards the close of the fourteenth century, and was so long absent in Palestine without any intelligence of him having reached home, that he was given up for dead, and a distant kinsman, Sir George Leslie of Rothes, was installed in his ancestral castle and estates. But scarcely had Sir George taken possession of the family mansion of Leslie, when the long-lost heir unexpectedly returned to Scotland and recovered his patrimonial estates. He, however, confirmed the entail executed by his father in favour of his kinsman, and at his death, forty years later, the principal property of the family passed to Norman de Leslie, son of Sir George, while the remainder was inherited by his own daughter and only child, Margaret, wife of Alexander Leslie, a son of the Baron of Balquhain, who assumed the designation of Leslie, or, according to the Scottish phrase, of ‘that ilk,’ though he was the head only of a minor branch of the family.

The Leslies of Rothes and Balquhain became henceforth the principal representatives of this ancient house. The Leslies of Balquhain still possess their ancestral estates. The Rothes Leslies exist in the female line, but the Leslies of that ilk were compelled to dispose of their patrimony about the beginning of the seventeenth century, owing to the imprudence and improvidence of George Leslie, the eighth baron. Their ancient castle of Leslie, erected by Bartolf, the founder of the family, which, like Balquhain, stands near the ‘Hill of Bennachie,’ was inhabited up to the beginning of the present century, but is now a ruin. So is the castle of Balquhain, ‘a stern, simple square block, as destitute of decoration or architectural peculiarity as any stone boulder on the adjoining moor,’ in which Queen Mary was hospitably entertained on her northern progress in 1562. It remained the main seat of the family till 1690, when they removed to Fetternear, an old summer residence of the Bishops of Aberdeen, beautifully situated in a finely wooded domain on the banks of the Don, which still remains their principal residence. The district of Garioch, in which these interesting baronial mansions stand, is associated with not a few historical incidents and remains of antiquity. The chapel of Garioch was endowed by Christian Bruce for the celebration of religious services for the souls of her brother, King Robert, and of her husband, Sir Andrew. Moray, his brave, companion in arms; and by the Countess of Mar, widow of William, Earl of Douglas, for the performance of similar services for the souls of her husband, her brother, and her son, the hero of Otterburn. About a mile from the church is the battlefield of Harlaw, where another chaplaincy was founded by the widow of Sir Andrew Leslie of Balquhain for the souls of her six sons, who fell on that fatal field, and of her husband, who was killed at Braco in 1420.

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