Biography of William Leigh Mellish (1813-1864)
William was the elder son of the Rev. Edward Mellish (1767-1830), rector of East Tuddenham, Norfolk and Dean of Hereford, and his wife Elizabeth Jane Leigh, daughter of the Rev. William Leigh of Rushall, Staffordshire. He was a grandson of William Mellish of Blyth Hall and Hodsock (1708-1791). He was born at Tuddenham and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1830, where he was a member of the cricket team.
He was an officer in the Sherwood Foresters from 1833 until selling his commission in 1846. He was a Lieutenant in the Nottinghamshire Yeomanry Cavalry in 1848, and Lieutenant-Colonel of the Nottinghamshire militia from 1852-64. He was also a J.P. for Nottinghamshire.
He inherited the Hodsock estate from his cousin Anne Chambers in 1855.
Family
He married Margaret Anne Cunard (1820-1901), daughter of Sir Samuel Cunard, 1st Baronet, in 1843, and had:
Archive Collections
- Papers relating to William Leigh Mellish are part of the Mellish Collection held in Manuscripts and Special Collections at the University of Nottingham