Thomas Pemberton Leigh, 1st Baron Kingsdown PC, KC, was a British barrister, judge and politician. Originally a successful equity lawyer, he then entered politics and sat as an MP from 1831 to 1832 and from 1835 to 1843. From 1841 to 1843 he was attorney-general for the Duchy of Cornwall. However, he is best remembered for his role on the judicial committee of the Privy Council, of which he was a member for nearly twenty years. Having turned down the post of Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain in 1858, he was the same year elevated to the peerage as Baron Kingsdown. He died unmarried in October 1867, aged 74.

The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including trusts, land law, the estates of lunatics and the guardianship of infants.