John Ley

John Henry Ley (1770 – 21 August 1850), was an English civil servant who served as Clerk of the House of Commons from 1820 to 1850. Early life He was a son of Henry Ley (1744–1824) and Mary ( Smith) Ley (1748–1834), a daughter of Capt. Smith of the Royal Navy. His sister, Mary Ley, married John Greathed Harris, FRS, and his younger brother, William Ley of Woodlands, was Assistant Clerk of the House of Commons from 1820 to 1856. His paternal grandparents were John Ley and Grace ( Grandy) Ley (a daughter of Henry Grandy, of Exeter). His family had been settled in Kenn for several generations and were "sprung from a common ancestor with the Leys, formerly Earls of Marlborough." Ley was educated as a King's Scholar at Westminster School, before being elected a Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, but "being desirous of going to Christ Church, with his contemporaries, the Westminster Students, he was entered as a Commoner of that College; he was soon after presented to a Studentship by Dr. Shafto, one of the Canons." After earning his degree, he left Christ Church, and "commenced his studies for the law, in the office of Mr. Abraham Moore, an eminent special pleader, where he continued for two years, and kept his terms as Student of the Middle Temple."