Benjamin Watkins Leigh

Benjamin Watkins Leigh (1781-1849) was born in Chesterfield County, Virginia, the son of the Reverend William Leigh (d. 1787) and Elizabeth Watkins (d. 1799). He attended the College of William and Mary, studied law and began practicing in Petersburg in 1802. Following the death of both his parents, he acted as a guardian for his younger brother William.

Leigh married three times: on December 24, 1802, to his cousin Mary Selden Watkins; on November 30, 1813, to Susan Colston; on November 24, 1821, to Julia Wickham (1801-1883), the eldest daughter of John Wickham. Their son Benjamin Watkins Leigh, Jr., (1831-1863) died at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War.