St. Leger family historical importance was Gen. Anthony St. Leger. He was born in 1731, probably in Kildare, Ireland. He was one of a group of noblemen and gentlemen who in 1778 gathered for a private dinner party in an upper room of the Red Lion Inn, which stands in the market square in Doncaster. A horse race, which was to set the pattern for classic racing throughout the world, had been christened the St. Leger at the suggestion of Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham. The race, a sweepstake for three-year-olds, had been born two years earlier in 1776, at the suggestion
William St Leger William St Leger Sir William St Leger (1586 – 2 July 1642) was an Anglo-Irish landowner, official and soldier active in Ireland. He was the son of Sir Warham St Leger (died 1600) and his wife Elizabeth Rothe of Kilkenny, grandson of William St Leger and a great grandson of Anthony St Leger, Lord Deputy of Ireland. He was probably born in County Cork. When he was 14 his father and Hugh Maguire (Lord of Fermanagh) fatally wounded each other in single combat near Cork city. He took part in the Flight of the Earls in 1607, when Hugh O'Neill,