This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Leicester,' the well known capital of that county.

1604-5. Thomas Leycester, or Lester, Essex: ibid.

From Leicester, the chief town in Leicestershire, England. Magister John de Leicestria and Richard de Leicestria appear as witnesses to a charter by Roger de Beaumont, bishop elect of St. Andrews, c. 1189—98 (RPSA., p. 153). John de Leicester, archdeacon of Lothian, was elected bishop of Dunkeld in 1211 and died in 1214 (Dowden, p. 52—53). Robert de Laycester witnessed a charter by his cousin Richard de Leycestria in the reign of Alexander II (Scon, p. 56). William of Leicester, burgess of Edinburgh, rendered homage, 1296 (Bain, II, p. 197). This surname does not appear to have lasted more than three or four generations in Scotland.

Belonging to Leicester, the Middle English Ley- cestre, Leycester, Anglo-Saxon Ligera-ceaster, Ligere-ceaster, Ligora-ceaster, Legra-ceaster [the first element is doubtful: the second is Old English ceaster, a (Roman) city: Latin castra, a camp] Her on þýs gére rád se here út ofer Eástron of Ham-túne and of Ligera-ceastre and brǽcon þone frið.

(In this year the [Danish] army rode out after Easter from [North-] Hampton and Leicester and broke the peace).—A.-Sax. Chronicle, A.D. 917.

The chief town of Leicestershire.

A corruption of Leicester.

From Leicester, a borough town in England. Saxon, Leagceaster, from Leag or Ley, a field or common, and cester, a camp or city, from the Latin Castrum; because, says Bailey, it was probably built hard by a leag or common; a camp of the Roman legion. (See Chester.)

Local. A borough town in England; a camp of the Roman legion. (See Leicester.)

Or De Ganville. Thomas de Joannisvilla and his fief mentioned in Normandy 1180-95, Ralph de Jehanville 1198 (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae). Of this family Roger de Geneville gave the Church of Pictariville c. 1000 to St. Taurin Abbey, Evreux, Normandy (Gall. Christ. xi. 139 Instr.). His descendants came to England 1066, and t. Henry I. Hugh [de Janville], Viscount of Leicester, witnessed the charter of Lenton Priory 1100-1108 (Mon. i. 646). He was Viscount of Leicester 1130, and Seneschal to Matilda de Senlis (Rot. Pip.; Mon. i. 672). Ivo de Leicester, his son, was living 1130 (Rot. Pip.). The family then became widely spread. In the same century Odo de L. and Ralph de Leicester gave lands in Normandy to Plessis Priory (MSAN, viii. 156,157). William de Ganville, M.P. for Leicestershire 1322, occurs as ‘William de Leicester’ (Parliamentary Writs). Roger de Leicester of this family possessed estates Leicestershire, t. Richard I. (he was son of Robert de L., witness to a charter of Salop Abbey, c. 1170, son of Ivo de L.). He witnessed 1190 the charter of Cokersand, Lancashire (Mon. ii. 631) and was of that county c. 1200 (Rotuli Curiae Regis), and in 1208 paid a fíne in Leicester (hardy, Obl. et Fin.). From this line descended the Lysters of Rowton, Salop. He had two grandsons: 1. Sir Nicholas, of Lancashire, who acquired Tabley, Cheshire, and was ancestor of the Leicesters of Tabley; 2. Thomas, father of, 1. Geoffry de L., M.P. for Derby 1311; 2. John of Derby, who, in 1321, obtained pardon as an adherent of Roger Mortimer, of Wigmore, and to whom in 1311 the Abbot of Salop was commanded by the king to make a payment of 20 l. (Parliamentary Writs). He m. 1312 Isabel, dau. and heir of John de Bolton of Bolland, Lancashire, and had Richard Leicester, whose son John inherited estates in Craven from the De Boltons, and was ancestor of William Lister, Lord of Midhope Craven, ancestor of the Listers, Barons Ribblesdale.

Or Lester. Robert de Lestre, Normandy 1180 (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae); Geoffry and Richard de L. Engl. 1203 (Rotulus Cancellarii). Robert de Lestre, c. 1272 (Rotuli Hundredorum).