In his efforts to enforce the King's religious settlement, Bishop Leslie sometimes ran into opposition from the local Scottish nobility (Scottish Gaelic: flath). This was particularly true during the Bishop's efforts to shut down the strictly illegal and underground pastoral work in his Diocese by Franciscan missionaries dispatched from the similarly underground Catholic Church in Ireland during the 1620s and '30s.[4]
Upon 9 September 1630, Fr. Patrick Hegarty, OFM, was arrested upon South Uist by a posse of priest hunters commanded in person by Bishop Leslie, but before the Bishop could deliver Fr. Hegarty for trial, however, Raghnall Mac Ailein 'ic Iain (Ranald MacDonald of Benbecula), the uncle of the then Chief of Clan MacDonald of Clanranald and great-great-grandfather to Scottish Gaelic national poetAlasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, intervened and relieved the Bishop and his posse of their captive. The incident infuriated King Charles I, who sent a furious letter about it to Privy Council of Scotland on 10 December 1630 and was followed by unsuccessful efforts to summon the Highland nobleman to Inverary for criminal prosecution.[5]
In June 1633, Bishop Leslie was translated to the bishopric of Raphoe in the Church of Ireland. Here he found many of the mensal lands in the hands of lay erenagh families, but recovered some by a lawsuit. In 1635 he had a dispute with one John Hamilton, in which John Bramhall, at Thomas Wentworth's request, undertook to arbitrate. He built a fortified palace at Raphoe, where there had been no episcopal mansion.
The outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 tested the defences of the palace. The bishop raised a company of foot for the king, distinguished himself as a partisan leader, and conveyed ammunition through from Dublin to Derry. He relieved Sir Ralph Gore, who was hard beset at Magherabeg, near Donegal. Leslie is said to have gone to Scotland about midsummer 1642, all the other bishops having previously left Ireland; but he returned after the king's execution, defended Raphoe against the New Model Army just as he had done against the Gaels, and was one of the last Cavalier leaders to submit.
Leslie was the only Anglican bishop who remained in Ireland after its conquest by the Commonwealth of England. Despite the religious persecution of the Anglican Communion, Leslie illegally confirmed children in Dublin and ordained clergymen. Leslie could get away with this because his wit and aristocratic manners had gained him the covert protection of Henry Cromwell and he was for a time in receipt of a pension. To do homage to the Stuart Restoration in 1660, Leslie, then nearly ninety, is said to have ridden from Chester to London in twenty-four hours. He was allowed to hold the deanery of Raphoe along with his bishopric, but resigned it on being translated to Clogher in June 1661. The bishop was recommended by King Charles II to the special consideration of the Irish House of Commons, and £2,000 were voted to him. In returning thanks, he hoped 'that whatever the house hath given to a prophet may receive a prophet's reward'.
He bought Glasslough in Monaghan; it was one of the many forfeited estates which had been granted to Sir Thomas Ridgeway. The Leslie family historian says that the bishop's wife was heiress of Glasslough. The town was long known as Castle-Leslie. At his death on 8 September 1671, he transmitted his estate to his children. He was buried there in the church of St. Saviour, which he had founded. The slab which covered his remains recorded that the bishop died a centenarian, that he was a doctor of divinity and laws, and that he was a privy councillor to three kings. Bishop Maxwell of Kilmore composed an epitaph.
Family
In 1638 the bishop was married to Catherine, daughter of Alexander Cunningham, Dean of Raphoe and Marian Murray, who was aged eighteen. She is said to have been one of twenty-seven children. They had ten children, of whom John, the eldest surviving son, was dean of Dromore. The sixth son was Charles Leslie the nonjuror, whose great-grandson was John Leslie, Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh (son of Charles Leslie MP).[6]
References
^"Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernicae: The succession of the prelates Volume 3" Cotton, H. p79 Dublin, Hodges & Smith, 1848–1878
^Clogher clergy and parishes: being an account of the clergy of the Church of Ireland in the Diocese of Clogher, from the earliest period, with historical notices of the several parishes, churches, etc" Leslie, J.B. p 12: Enniskille; R. H. Ritchie; 1929
