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
Ralph St Leger now lost. It depicts Ralph prone with hands together in prayer and dressed in full armour, his bare head resting on his helm atop which is the crest of St Leger, "a griffin passant". His wife Anne lies to his left, and wears an elaborate head-dress. Both persons feet rest on dogs. The Latin inscription beneath is as follows (expanded from abbreviated text): "Orate pro animabus Radulphi Sentleger Armigeri et Anne uxoris suae qui quidam Radulphus obiit undecimo die Novembriis anno domini millencimo CCCCLXX. Quorum animabus propicietur Deus Amen" ("Pray ye for the souls of Ralph Saint Leger, Esquire, and