(John), the great English antiquary, was born in London about the year 1507. Having lost his parents when a child, he had the good fortune to find a friend and patron in one Mr Thomas Miles, who placed him in St Paul's school, of which the grammarian Lilye was master. From that school he was sent to Christ's college, Cambridge; whence, after some years residence, he removed to All-Souls, Oxford. From Oxford he went to Paris, chiefly with a design to study the Greek language, which at that time was but little understood in this kingdom. On his return to England he took orders, and was soon appointed chaplain to king Henry VIII. who also gave him the rectory of Poppeling, in the manors of Calais, appointed him his librarian, and in 1533 granted to him, by commission under the great seal, the office of king's antiquary; an office never borne by any other person before or since. By this commission he was empowered to search for ancient writings in all the libraries of colleges, abbeys, priories, &c., in his majesty's dominions. We are told by his last biographer, that he renounced popery soon after his return to England; but he quotes no authority. Be this as it may, in 1536, he obtained a dispensation to keep a curate at Poppeling, and set out on his journey in search of antiquities. In this employment he spent five years, during which time he visited every part of England where monuments of antiquity were to to be expected. After his return, in the year 1542, he was presented by the king to the rich rectory of Haleley in Oxfordshire; and in the following year he gave him a prebend of King's College, now Christ's church, in Oxford, besides that of East and West Knowle, in the cathedral of Salisbury. Being thus amply provided for, he retired to a house of his own in the parish of St Michael le Querne in London, where he spent six years more in digesting the materials which he had collected. King Henry VIII died in 1547; and in a short time after, poor Leland lost his senses. He was at first seized with a deep melancholy, which was succeeded by a total deprivation of his reason. In this dreadful state he continued till the beginning of the year 1552, when he was happily released by death. He was buried in the church of St Michael le Querne, which was destroyed by the fire in 1666. Mr Leland is remembered as a man of great learning, an universal linguist, an excellent Latin poet, and a most indefatigable and skilful antiquary. On his death, king Edward VI gave all his papers to Sir John Cheke, his tutor and Latin secretary of state. The king dying, and Sir John being obliged to leave the kingdom, he gave four folio volumes of Leland's collections to Humphrey Purefoy, Esq., which, in 1612, were by his son given to William Burton, author of the history of Leicestershire. This gentleman also became possessed of the Itinerary in 8 vols folio, which, in 1632, he deposited in the Bodleian library. Many other of Leland's manuscripts, after the death of Sir John Cheke, fell into the hands of lord Paget, Sir William Cecil, and others, which at last fortunately came into the possession of Sir John Cotton. These manuscripts were of great use to all our subsequent antiquarians, particularly Camden, Sir William Dugdale, Stowe, Lambard, Dr Batteley, Att. Wood, &c. His Itinerary throughout most parts of England and Wales, was published by Mr Hearne, 9 vols 8vo. in 1710-11; as was also his Collectanea de rebus Britannicis, 6 vols 8vo, in 1715.

(John), well known by his writings in defense of Christianity, was born at Wigan in Lancashire in 1691, of eminently pious and virtuous parents. They took the earliest care to sear his mind with proper instructions; but, in his fifth year, the small-pox deprived him of his understanding and memory, and extinguished all his former ideas. He continued in this deplorable state near a twelvemonth, when his faculties seemed to spring up anew; and though he did not retain the least traces of any impressions made on him before the distemper, yet he now discovered a quick apprehension and strong memory. In a few years after, his parents settled in Dublin, which situation gave him an easy introduction to learning and the sciences. When he was properly qualified by years and study, he was called to be pastor to a congregation of Protestant dissenters in that city. He was an able and acceptable preacher, but his labors were not confined to the pulpit. The many attacks made on Christianity, and by some writers of no contemptible abilities, engaged him to consider the subject with the exactest care, and the most faithful examination. Upon the most deliberate inquiry, the truth and divine original, as well as the excellence and importance of Christianity, appearing to him with great lustre, he published answers to several authors who successively appeared in that cause. He was indeed a master in this controversy; and his history of it, styled "A View of the Deistical Writers that have appeared in England in the last and present Century, &c.," is very greatly and deservedly esteemed. In the decline of life he published another laborious work, intitled, "The Advantage and Necessity of the Christian Revelation, shown from the State of Religion in the ancient Heathen World, especially with respect to the Knowledge and Worship of the One true God; a Rule of moral Duty, and a State of future Rewards and Punishments; to which is prefixed, a long and preliminary Discourse on Natural and Revealed Religion," 2 vols 4to. This noble and extensive subject, the several parts of which have been lightly and occasionally handled by other writers, Leland has treated at large with the greatest care, accuracy, and candour. And, in his "View of the Deistical Writers," his cool and dispassionate manner of treating their arguments, and his solid confutation of them, have contributed more to depress the cause of atheism and infidelity, than the angry zeal of warm disputants. But not only his learning and abilities, but also his amiable temper, great modesty, and exemplary life, recommended his memory to general esteem and affection. He died in 1766.

LEGELES, the ancient name of Miletus, from the Legeles, the first inhabitants of it.

LEGELES, ancients a people of Asia, of Greek original; the name denoting "a collection of people:" they first occupied the islands; then passing over to the continent, they settled partly in Mytilene on the Sinus Adramyttium, and partly in that part of Ionia next Caria.—There were Legeles also of Laconia. These went to the Trojan war with Altes their king. Achilles plundered their country, and obliged them to retire to the neighbourhood of Halicarnassus, where they fixed their habitation.—The inhabitants of Laconia and of Megara also bore this name for some time, from Legele one of their kings.