LEIGHS-MAGNA, PARVA, and PRIORY, (Essex) lie all three together, on the S. W. side of Braintree. The first was granted by
K. Hen. IV. to Sir Tho. Audley; from whom, after many intermediate purchases, it came to Ralph Ld. Banning; from whom it
descended to his youngest daughter's grand-children, named Leonard, of the Sussex family. The second was given by Hen.
III. to the priory here; but at the Diss. was given, together with the site of the priory, to Sir Rich. Rich, afterwards
Ld. Rich, grandfather to the first E. of Warwick. From his family it went by marriage to Edward E. of Manchester, and has
since been the seat of Sir Geo. Alleyn. That which was the priory was a seat of the late D. of Manchester; after whose
death, it was sold to the late Dss. dowager of Buckinghamshire, and once purchased by Sir Rich. Hoare, Kt. and ald. whose
seat here is an old house in the midst of a beautiful park.