The Slaidburn Ancestry of Her Majesty the Queen
by Chris Spencer
When I began researching the genealogy of my father’s family, the Spencers, I never anticipated
that, one day, I would discover that they were cousins of royalty.
In a very well-researched article in The Genealogists’ Magazine, Volume 27, number 8, December
2002, Edward J Davies described his research into the ancestry of Frances Webb, wife of Thomas
Salisbury of Fordington, Dorset.
Thomas Salisbury (1761-1810) and Frances Webb (1775-1862) were the great, great grandparents of
the late Queen Mother, Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (1900-2002), as shown in the
descendancy chart below.
Thomas Salisbury = Frances Webb
1761-1810
1775-1862
Ann Caroline Salisbury = Edwyn Burnaby
1798-1867
1805-1881
Charles W F Cavendish-Bentinck = Caroline Louisa Burnaby
1817-1865
1832-1918
Claude George Bowes-Lyon = Nina Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck
1855-1944
1862-1938
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon = King George VI
1900-2002
1895-1952
Queen Elizabeth II
1926Thomas Salisbury (1761-1810) is described in the article as the second son of Thomas Salisbury of
Marshfield House, Settle, Yorkshire. Indeed, he was born there 21 Sep 1761 and baptised at
Giggleswick church on 4 Oct.
Thomas Salisbury (senior) of Settle had married Mary Lister at Goosnargh on 19 July 1753. Thomas
Salisbury was born about 1729, the eldest son of Edward Salisbury and Alice (nee Leigh) of Newton
in Bowland. Salisbury Hall, their house in Newton, is still standing there today.
The Salisburys of Newton in Bowland, parish of Slaidburn, were attorneys or lawyers. They occur
frequently in the court rolls of the Manor of Slaidburn, acting as attorneys in conveyances of
copyhold land. The marriage of Edward Salisbury, attorney of Newton in Bowland, to Alice Leigh of
Harrop Hall, Slaidburn is recorded in the parish registers of Downham by licence, in 1728. One
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possible reason for the marriage taking place at Downham, rather than Slaidburn, was religious nonconformity in the Leigh family. Alice Leigh was the youngest daughter, by his second marriage, of
Richard Leigh of Birkett on the Knowlmere Estate, Slaidburn; he had built the Newton Independent
Chapel for protestant dissenters in 1696. His initials may still be found on a stone lintel on an interior
doorway of the re-built chapel.
Signatures of Edward Salisbury (1701-62), his wife Alice Salisbury nee Leigh (c1707-95) and their eldest son,
Thomas Salisbury (c1729-1778) taken from deeds in the Chris Spencer collection (LRO DDX 2480).
Edward Salisbury left Newton in Bowland for Lancaster some time around 1740-50, perhaps in
connection with the death of his brother in law, Leonard Leigh of Lancaster in 1735. The Salisburys
were merchants in Lancaster from about 1770 onwards. Edward Salisbury, the attorney, died there
in 1762 and his will proved at York names his eldest son Thomas Salisbury of Settle, attorney, as
chief beneficiary and executor, and other sons Edward and Richard. Several of the Salisbury descent
of Edward and Alice were mayors of Lancaster –Thomas Walling Salisbury in 1818 and 1827 and
Edward Dodson Salisbury in 1844.
Thomas Salisbury of Settle and Lancaster died in 1788 and his eldest son John died about the same
time in Kingston, Jamaica, according to papers in the King-Wilkinson deeds at the Lancashire Record
Office. In 1785, Thomas’s heir, his second son Edward, was resident in St Kitt’s in the West Indies
according to the Manor of Slaidburn court records, but he later returned to Lancaster.
The Leigh family of Slaidburn parish had been tenants on the Knowlmere Estate (owned by the
Musgrave and then the Graham families) from Tudor times or earlier. They farmed the second
largest farm on the estate, Birkett, and gradually rose in rank from tenant farmers to yeoman gentry.
By the latter half of the 17th century, Richard Leigh (c1600-1677) of Birkett and his eldest son
Leonard Leigh (1636-1704) of Oxenhurst Hey (also a Knowlmere Estate farm) were two of the more
wealthy inhabitants of Slaidburn parish. Indeed, Leonard purchased the freehold of Pain Hill farm
from the Witton family around 1671, and was also an active buyer of copyhold land in the Manor of
Slaidburn). He is sometimes referred to in the records as a ‘chapman’ which is suggestive of him
trading goods, perhaps dairy produce from the many farms in the area, or investing in the raw
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materials of the woollen trade, putting out the work to spinners and weavers at home on piecerates, and sell the products for profit.
Leonard Leigh’s eldest son, Richard Leigh (1658-1720), founded the Newton Independent Chapel in
1696 as stated above; he was also co-purchaser about 1717, with his son, another Leonard Leigh
(1686-1735), of the freehold of Harrop Hall in the parish of Slaidburn, from the descendants of the
Moore family, where their initials can still be seen. The Leighs at one time also owned the freeholds
of Burn House and Pain Hill farms, as well as other copyhold lands such as the Cross and Coolham
Hall farms near Harrop, in the Manor of Slaidburn. The male line of Leighs died out in 1743 with the
death of Leonard’s son, Richard Leigh of Lancaster, who was probably aged about 20. The heiress
was Richard’s sister, Ann, who married Samuel Harrison esquire of Cranage Hall, Cheshire, at St
Peter’s, Liverpool, in 1745.
Two weather-worn brass plates on a flat tombstone in Slaidburn churchyard record the burials of
five generations of the Leigh family, ending with Richard Leigh in 1743.
So where do the Slaidburn Spencers fit in? George Spencer (c1705-1783) married Catherine Squire
(1715-1773) at Slaidburn in 1737 – these are my direct ancestors. Catherine Squire was a great
granddaughter of Leonard Leigh (1636-1704) and his wife Elizabeth Briggs (1638-1695). This means
that the late Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, and my great grandfather, Edward Spencer
(1876-1943) were 7th cousins.
Additionally, Elizabeth Briggs (1638-1695) was the granddaughter of John Spencer (c1570-1646) of
Stephen Park, Slaidburn; this now gets complicated, but it appears that George Spencer and
Catherine Squire were 4th cousins, once removed, at marriage! So, I am doubly related to the
Salisbury family, and hence to the Queen Mother.
Primary sources used:
Giggleswick and Slaidburn parish registers
Manor of Slaidburn court rolls
King-Wilkinson deeds at Lancashire Record Office
West Riding of Yorkshire Deeds Registry, Wakefield
Wills proved at York
I would like to acknowledge the help of Reg Postlethwaite who located the Frances Webb article in
the Genealogists’ Magazine and alerted me to it.
C J Spencer BSc ARCS
Preston, Lancashire
December 2010
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Partial Pedigree of Leigh family of Slaidburn
Richard Leigh =
c1600-1677
yeoman of Birkett
Jane Parkinson
c1600-1688
Leonard Leigh =
1636-1704
yeo/gent of
Oxenhurst Hey
Elizabeth Briggs
1638-1695
Alice = Richard Leigh = Margaret
Whalley
Sellers
1658-1721
gentleman
of Birkett
Leonard Leigh
1686-1735
gentleman
Lancaster
Thomas = Jane Leigh = Richard
Battersby
Parsons
c1655-1689 c1660-1734
yeoman
of Pain Hill
Alice Leigh = Edward
Isabel Battersby = Robert Squire
c1707-1795 Salisbury
1685-1750
1685-1751
1701-1762
gentleman
attorney
Hollings, Slaidburn
Newton in Bowland
& Lancaster
Richard Leigh Ann Leigh = Samuel Thomas Salisbury = Mary
c1721-1743
1726-1762 Harrison
c1729-1778
Lister
bachelor
Leigh Heiress esquire
attorney
Cranage Hall Settle &
High Sheriff
Lancaster
of Cheshire 1759
Catherine Squire = George
1715-1773
Spencer
cordwainer
Slaidburn
7th cousins
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
wife of King George VI
1900-2002
Edward Spencer
mechanical engineer
Adlington, Cheshire
1876-1943
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