A farmer from the area around Hawick, Roxburghshire, and father of the linguist and poet, John Leyden (1775–1811; DNB). In 1826 Southey wrote to Leyden to thank him for a copy of the Memoirs of Zehir-ed-Din Muhammed Baber, Emperor of Hindustan, published earlier that year. This combined his late son’s unfinished translation from the Eastern Turkish original with one by William Erskine (1773–1852; DNB) from a Persian version of the text.