He was born at
Ellesborough, Buckinghamshire, the son of the Rev. Chaloner Stanley Leathes, and was educated at
Jesus College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1852, M.A. 1853. In 1853 he was awarded a
Tyrwhitt's Hebrew scholarship. He was ordained priest in 1857, and after serving several curacies was appointed professor of Hebrew at
King's College London, in 1863. In 1868–1870 he was
Boyle lecturer ("The Witness of the Old Testament to Christ"), in 1873
Hulsean lecturer ("The Gospel its Own Witness"), in 1874
Bampton Lecturer ("The Religion of the Christ") and from 1876 to 1880
Warburtonian lecturer. He was a member of the
Old Testament revision committee from 1870 to 1885. In 1876 he was elected
prebendary of
St Paul's Cathedral, and he was rector of
Cliffe-at-Hoo near
Gravesend (1880–1889) and of
Much Hadham, Hertfordshire (1889–1900). The
University of Edinburgh gave him the honorary degree of DD in 1878, and his own college made him an honorary Fellow in 1885. Besides the lectures noted he published
Studies in Genesis (1880), The
Foundations of Morality (1882) and some volumes of sermons. ==Family==