James Ley, 1st Earl of Marlborough

James Ley, 1st Earl of Marlborough (c. 1552–1629) was an English judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1597 and 1622. He was Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench in Ireland and then in England and was Lord High Treasurer from 1624 to 1628. On 31 December 1624, James I created him Baron Ley, of Ley in the County of Devon, and on 5 February 1626, Charles I created him Earl of Marlborough. Both titles became extinct upon the death of the 4th Earl of Marlborough in 1679.

James Ley was a younger son of a soldier and landowner Henry Ley (died 1574), of Teffont Evias, Wiltshire, where he was born in about 1552. He attended both Cambridge and Oxford Universities, graduating from Brasenose College in 1574. He then trained as a barrister, becoming a bencher of Lincolns Inn and reader of Furnival's Inn.

Ley was elected as Member of Parliament for Westbury in 1597. In 1603, he was appointed a judge on the Carmarthen circuit in June 1603. That November he became a serjeant at law and in December James I knighted him. He was elected MP for Westbury again in 1604, and then King James sent him to Dublin as Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench for Ireland. He also served on the Privy Council of Ireland. Amongst other things, he caused the English Book of Common Prayer to be translated into Irish, and sought to enforce Protestant church attendance on Irish lords.

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