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Sir Alexander Leith, 1st Baronet, of Burgh St Peter

British Member of Parliament (1741-1780)

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ26911632 ↗
Source-derived summary

Sir Alexander Charles George Leith, 1st Baronet (1741–1780) was a British soldier and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1774 and 1780.

Leith was the son of Alexander Leith and his wife Anne, who was the widow of John Milet of County Antrim. His father was killed at the siege of Havana in 1762. Leith joined the Royal Artillery and was lieutenant and fireworker in 1759. In 1764, he became first lieutenant. He joined the service of the East India Company in 1768. He married firstly Margaret Wren, a widow and daughter of Thomas Hay of Huntington. He married secondly a daughter of General Sir John Cope on 1 March 1775.

At the 1774 general election, Leith was returned unopposed as Member of Parliament for Tregony, which was in the gift of the Treasury. He was a candidate at the last minute and was not one of the names that Lord North had put forward for the seat.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Sir Alexander Leith, 1st Baronet, of Burgh St Peter” as british Member of Parliament (1741-1780). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Alexander, Leith and Baronet.

Editorial reviewMost valuable as an event-and-institution map that identifies actors, dates and record creators for deeper historical inquiry. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1741, 1780, 1774, 1762—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1741. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Alexander, Leith and Baronet providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Sir Alexander Leith, 1st Baronet, of Burgh St Peter”, the useful work is to connect “british Member of Parliament (1741-1780)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q26911632. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1741, 1780, 1774 and 1762.

Critical limits

Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

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  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
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Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

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  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Sir Alexander Leith, 1st Baronet, of Burgh St Peter” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.