Henry Leslie (bishop)

Henry Leslie (1580 – 9 April 1661) was a Scottishman who became the Church of Ireland Bishop of Down and Connor from 1635 to 1661 and briefly Bishop of Meath from January to April 1661.

He was the eldest son of James Leslie and his wife, Jean Hamilton of Evandale, born at Leslie, Fife in 1580. The father, apparently a Catholic, was the second surviving son of George Leslie, 4th Earl of Rothes. Henry Leslie was educated at Aberdeen, and went to Ireland in 1614, where he was ordained priest 8 April 1617. He became prebendary of Connor in 1619, and rector of Muckamore in 1622, in which year he was selected by Primate Christopher Hampton to preach at Drogheda on Whit Sunday before the royal commissioners. The sermon was printed next year at Hampton's request, as 'a treatise tending to unity'; Leslie had proposed that no one should be allowed to go beyond seas for education, and that no popish schoolmaster should be allowed at home.

Leslie did curate's duty at Drogheda from 1622 to 1626. He preached before Charles I at Windsor on 9 July 1625, and at Oxford the same year; and on 30 October, being then one of his majesty's chaplains in ordinary, he delivered 'a warning to Israel' in Christ Church, Dublin, dedicated to Lord-deputy Falkland. In 1627 Leslie again preached before the king at Woking, and in the same year he was made Dean of Down. In 1628 he was made precentor of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, three other livings being added to the dignity, and in 1632 he became treasurer also, and he seems to have held all these preferments in addition to his deanery.

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