Edward Legge FRS (1710 – 19 September 1747) was an officer of the Royal Navy who achieved a distinction when he was returned as Member of Parliament for Portsmouth on 15 December 1747, despite the fact that he died 87 days prior in the West Indies.
He entered the navy in 1726, on board, HMS Royal Oak, one of the fleet under Sir Charles Wager for the relief of Gibraltar.
[1] In the violent storm to the southward of Cape Horn, the Severn and the Pearl were separated from the commodore on 10 April 1741.
The storm, blowing from the north-west, raged continuously for forty days, during which time they beat to the westward.
They were in fact still in the Atlantic, the leeway and current together having more than nullified the laborious windward sailing, and on 1 June found themselves off Cape Frio.
Henry wrote back to the Duke on 4 August 1747 to say: The least return the Legges can make for the many instances of partiality they have received from your Grace, is to do all in their power to make the effects of that favour as little troublesome to their benefactor as possible; and for my own part I can see no objection to the declaring Ned a candidate for Portsmouth since your Grace is so kind as to see none to accepting of him in that light yourself.With Edward duly returned unopposed as a supporter of the Pelham administration, the Legge family was distressed to learn four days later that he had died three months previously.