Joseph Leech (1720-1803) was a militia officer, politician, justice of the peace, and prominent businessman in colonial New Bern. In an undated petition, he joined others in asking royal governor Arthur Dobbs for aid in controlling an outbreak of disease that was then decimating cattle, threatening both beef and leather production. In 1777 he submitted a wanted ad in the North Carolina Gazette for James Rawlings, a member of the Gourd Patch Conspiracy who had escaped the New Bern jail.