LEISTON, a parish in the hundred of BLYTHING, county of SUFFOLK, 4 miles (E. by S.) from Saxmundham, containing, with the hamlet of Sizewell, 954 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of Suffolk, and diocese of Norwich, and in the alternate patronage of the Governors of Christ's Hospital, and the Master and Wardens of the Haberdashers Company, London. The church is dedicated to St. Margaret. An abbey of Premonstratensian canons, in honour of the Virgin Mary, was built and endowed by Ranulph de Glanvill, in 1182, the revenue of which, at the dissolution, was valued at £181, 17. 1.