Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Landscape gardener, active from the 1770s until the second decade of the nineteenth century. Thomas Leggett, who may have worked at Attingham Park, Shropshire, in the 1770s, arrived in Ireland in the winter of 1780-1781 and placed the following advertisement in Faulkner's Dublin Journal for 16-18 January 1781: 'Planting &c - Just arrived from England, Thomas Leggett, ;who from an extensive practice in ornamenting demesnes in England and Wales, would wish to be employed by Noblemen and Gentlemen during his stay in this kingdom, as he flatters himself he is conversant with what will create beauty - Any commands will be received at Messrs. Bullen and Webb's Nursery in New Street.' In 1790 he was one of six candidates for the post of engineer to Dublin city pipe water works, but was passed over in favour of JAMES JOHNSTON. JAMES JOHNSTON. (1) He appears to have spent the rest of his life in Ireland, where he is known to have worked at Mount Bellew, Co. Galway, and Marley Park and Stillorgan Park, both in Co. Dublin.(2) Hely Dutton, in his Survey of Co. Galway, published in 1824, noted that in the burial ground at Fort Hill, near Galway, was the grave of 'Mr Thomas Leggett, a very celebrated landscape gardener, who after beautifying almost every demesne in the County, is most ungratefully suffered to lie here neglected, without even a Hic Jacet. I proposed some years since, to receive subscriptions to enable me to raise an humble monument to his memory, but, alas! I felt a freezing indifference, except from one gentleman, who would give 20 guineas, provided it was erected in his own demesne.'(3)

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References



(1) CARD XIV, 161.
(2) R. Desmond, Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists (1994), 423.
(3) Quoted in E. Malins & The Kinght of Glin, Lost Demesnes (1976), 193.


3 work entries listed in chronological order for LEGGETT, THOMAS


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Building: CO. GALWAY, MOUNT BELLEW
Date: ?
Nature: Landscape improvements.
Refs: J.P. Neale, Views of Seats III (1820), No. 68; R. Desmond, Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists (1994), 423.

Building: CO. DUBLIN, MARLAY (RATHFARNHAM)
Date: ?
Nature: Landscape improvements.
Refs: R. Desmond, Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists (1994), 423.

Building: CO. DUBLIN, BLACKROCK, CARYSFORT AVENUE, STILLORGAN PARK HOUSE
Date: ?
Nature: Landscape improvements.
Refs: R. Desmond, Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists (1994), 423.