Frequently Asked Questions
Find answers to common questions about the Lee family of Virginia.

Richard Lee was the ancestor of the Lee Family of Virginia, many of whom played prominent roles in the political and military affairs of the colony and state. Known as Richard Lee the Immigrant, his ancestry is not known with certainty. Since he became one of Virginia’s most prominent tobacco growers and traders he probably was a younger son of a substantial family involved in the mercantile and commercial affairs of England. Coming to the New World, he could exploit his connections and capital in ways that would have been impossible back in England.

Richard Lee was born about 1613.

Richard Lee was born in England, but no on knows for sure exactly where. Some think his ancestors came from Shropshire while others think Worcester. (Indeed, a close friend of Richard Lee said Lee’s family lived in Shropshire, as did a descendent in the eighteenth century.) Attempts to tie his ancestry to one of the dozen or so Lee families in England (spelled variously as Lee, Lea, Leight, or Lega) that appeared around the time of the Plantagenets have been unsuccessful.

Richard Lee apparently came to the Jamestown colony in late 1639 or early 1640. Tradition says he accompanied Sir Francis Wyatt (c. 1575–1644) who in 1639 was returning to the colony to serve a second term as governor.

When Richard Lee first came to Virginia, he settled at Jamestown, as did almost all colonists. However, by 1640 he had acquired his first tract of land, at Tindal’s Point in present-day Gloucester County. Tindal’s Point is on the north side of the York River across from where Yorktown was later established. In 1642 Lee patented a 1,000-acre tract on Poropotank Creek, a tributary of the York about twenty miles above the river’s mouth. The patent was obtained by Lee’s paying for the transportation of seventeen indentured servants to the colony to work the tract. On Poropotank Creek Lee planted tobacco and opened trade with the Indians. Lee moved to the south side of the York after the Indian Massacre of 1644, staying there until 1653 when he moved back to Poropotank Creek. Although his Gloucester lands were declared off limits by a treaty with the Indians, Lee kept accumulating acreage until he had about 1,500 acres. Calling his estate “Paradise,” Lee set up an Indian trading post and tobacco warehouse. Later he moved to present-day Northumberland County and, and he also acquired land in present-day Fairfax county. He was living on Dividing Creek near present-day Kilmarnock when he died. By then Lee owned more than 15,000 acres of land in Virginia, land in Maryland, and a large estate outside of London, at Stratford-Langton. He undoubtedly was more wealthy and held more land than anyone in Virginia.

Richard Lee was appointed to a number of offices in the Jamestown colony, including Clerk of the Quarter Court in 1641; Attorney General in 1643; Sheriff and Burgess of York County in 1646 and 1647, respectively; Secretary of State in 1649; and the Governor’s Council in 1651. Lee kept the official records at Jamestown, issuing marriage and travel and hunting licenses, and recording wills and land titles. A royalist loyal to Charles I and a close ally of Governor Sir William Berkeley, Lee is said to have made frequent trans-Atlantic trips, some in the governor’s name. On one of those trips, after Charle’s execution, Lee purportedly met with Charles II to exchange Berkeley’s old commission for a new one and to invite the exiled king to Virginia. When Berkeley was thrown out of office during the Interregnum Lee naturally lost his positions as secretary of state and Councillor, although the records later named Lee as a person “useful and faithful to the Commonwealth.”

Richard Lee held the office of colonel of the Northumberland militia, the militia being the only military force in the Virginia colony in the seventeenth century.

Richard Lee married Anne Constable (b. 1622), a native of London whom he met in England and who may have come to Virginia when he did. Little is known about Anne, and some have even questioned whether her surname was even Constable. However, if so, Anne was a daughter of Londoner Francis Constable who had connections with Sir John Thorowgood, one of King Charles I’s personal attendants. It is unclear whether Richard and Anne married in London or at Jamestown. When Richard died Anne was given a life-right to their home on Dividing Creek, where she is said to be buried. Anne remarried, to a Edmund Lister, and disappeared from the records.

Yes, between 1645 and 1656 Richard and Anne Lee had at least ten children, including two sets of twins. Six boys and two girls survived infancy. They were:

• John (1645–1673), the founder of the Mount Pleasant line of the family. John Lee earned a medical degree from Oxford University.

• Richard II, known as the Scholar (1647–1714), the founder of the Lee Hall line of the family. He was educated at Oxford University and after returning to Virginia held a number of public offices, including a seat on the Governor’s Council, burgess, receiver of the Potomac River, colonel of the Westmoreland militia. He also was captured and held hostage during Bacon’s Rebellion. Some of Richard Lee’s sons also held prominent positions in Virginia, especially Thomas Lee, President of the Council, agent for the Fairfax Proprietory, founder of the Ohio Company, and the builder of Stratford Hall.

• Francis (c. 1648–1714), the family business agent in London. Francis and his wife Tamar, whose surnamed is not known, had at least seven children, at least one of whom, daughter Anne, survived to adulthood and married Henry Watson. Francis became a successful mechant in England and later the family sent a nephew, Richard III (son of the Scholar) to apprentice with him.

• William (born c. 1651–c. 1697), who died without marrying. William, to whom his father willed his Maryland lands, served as a family business agent in Virginia as well as a justice and a captain in the militia. Like his father, he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses. William caused some excitement when he left his entire estate to a young widow, Mary Heath, who after entering into the inheritance remarried, to one Bartholomew Schreever. William Lee’s estate returned to the family after Richard the Scholar convinced the Virginia courts that the Immigrant’s will had limited his legacies to William for the term of his life only.

• Hancock (1653–1709), the founder of the Ditchley line of the family. Hancock married two times, to Mary Kendall and to Sarah Allerton (b.1671), and was the father of seven children. President Zachary Taylor was the great-grandson of Hancock and Sarah Allerton Lee, and Taylor’s daughter, Sarah, was the first wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Another of Hancock’s descendent was Supreme Court Justice Edward Douglas White.

• Elizabeth (Betsy; 1654–1714), who married first Leonard Howson (b. 1648) of Northumberland County and after his death John Turberville (1650–1728) of Lancaster County. Betsy Lee and Leonard Howson married in 1670 and had at least five children, including: Elizabeth; William (1672–1702); Leonard, Jr. (b. 1673); Hannah (1677–1713), who married Francis Kenner in 1706; and John (1679–1714). One of Hannah Kenner’s sons married the daughter of George Eskridge, who was Mary Ball’s guardian and whom George Washington was named after. Betsy Lee and her second husband had one child, George Turberville (1694–1742), who lived at Hickory Hill in Westmoreland County.

• Anne, married Captain Thomas Youell, with whom she had at least three daughters that survived to adulthood, married, and had children of their own. The surnames of Anne Lee Youell’s sons-in-law were English, Watts, and Spence.

• Charles (c. 1656–c. 1700), the founder of the Cobbs Hall line of the family. Charles Lee married Elizabeth Medstand, with whom he had four children, and lived where his parents had first settled at Dividing Creek, on land still held by the family.

From these children descend the Lee Family, now numbering in the thousands.

Early on, Richard Lee’s labor force consisted of white indentured servants who in exchange for seven years work in the tobacco fields had their passage paid to the New World. That changed by 1660 when Lee laid claim to 4,000 acres of land for bringing into the colony eighty black laborers, all of whom presumably were imported as slaves.

Yes, Richard Lee excelled in business. From his first arrival, Lee sought out governmental and political offices that offered lucrative returns. Although he was extremely successful in acquiring land and settling plantations, which necessitated him bringing to Virginia dozens of indentured servants, he thought of himself as a merchant and trader. He carried on a vibrant fur trade with the Indians and invested in at least two cargo ships, the Susan and the Elizabeth and Mary, that ferried goods and people between England and the New World. In addition, Lee conducted business in London.

Richard Lee was dead by the time Nathaniel Bacon led an army of planters against Governor Sir William Berkeley. Lee’s son Richard Lee the Scholar was a strong supporter of Berkeley and hence became the object of the insurgents.

Richard Lee died in 1664. Lee is buried at the cemetery at Cobbs Hall, near the original mansion built site of his grandson, Charles Lee. Lee had stipulated in his Last Will and Testament that his remains “be disposed of whether by sea or land according to the opportunity of the place.”

Richard Henry Lee belonged to the famous Revolutionary generation of Virginia Lees that included brothers Thomas Ludwell, Francis Lightfoot, William, and Arthur.

Richard Henry Lee was born on 20 January 1732 at Stratford Hall in Westmoreland County, Virginia.

Richard Henry Lee’s parents were Thomas Lee, president of the Virginia Council of State and the builder of Stratford Hall, and his wife Hannah Harrison Ludwell (1701–1750), the daughter of Hannah Harrison and Philip Ludwell, Jr., of Green Spring. Perhaps the most wealthy and powerful individual in Virginia, Thomas Lee was the principal founder of the Ohio Company and the father of a Revolutionary dynasty that included not only Richard Henry but his brothers Arthur, Francis Lightfoot, and William Lee.

Not much is know about Richard Henry Lee’s early schooling other than that he was tutored along with brothers Thomas and Francis, and sister Alice by Alexander White, an Anglican In 1748 his father sent him to England, where he attended Wakefield Academy in Yorkshire. There he became fluent in Latin and Greek. His formal education ended at age 20, followed by a lengthy tour of northern Europe, and he returned to Virginia in 1753. Back at Stratford Hall he supplemented his education by studying law, government, history, and the classics.

Yes, Richard Henry Lee was severely wounded during a hunting accident in 1768. While hunting geese his gun exploded and took off the fingers of his left hand. His wound was cauterized with a white-hot iron and healed over a period of months. Subsequently, he wore a black silk cloth or glove to hide the scarred hand, which he used to great effect when giving public speeches. In addition, Lee suffered from gout and arthritis.

On 3 December 1757 Richard Henry Lee married Anne Aylett (d. 1768), a daughter of William and Anne Aylett of King William County, Virginia. Their children included Thomas (1758–1805), Ludwell (1760–1836), Mary (1764–1795), Hannah (1766–1801), and Marybelle (b. and d. 1768). Anne Aylett Lee of pluerisy in December 1768, at age thirty. In the spring or summer of 1769 Lee married widow Anne Gaskins Pinckard, with whom he had another seven children: Anne (1770–1804), Henrietta (Harriotte; 1773–1803), Sarah Caldwell (Sally; 1775–1837), Cassius (1779–1850), Francis Lightfoot (1782–1850), and two who died in infancy, born in 1784 and 1786.

Richard Henry Lee and his family lived at Stratford Hall until 1763 when they moved to Chantilly-on-the-Potomac, a three-and-a-half story house he had constructed on a bluff overlooking the Potomac River as it flowed into Currioman Bay. Situated on 500 acres of Lee lands adjacent to Stratford Hall, Chantilly was said to have a finer view of the Potomac River than the grander Stratford. At Chantilly Lee grew tobacco, corn, and wheat and raised livestock. Chantilly’s outbuildings included a kitchen, a barn, a dairy, a blacksmith shop, and various stables. A boat dock constructed at nearby creeks was christened Chantilly Landing.

Yes, as did most of his family. Richard Henry Lee inherited forty slaves at the death of father Thomas Lee in 1750. By his own death in 1794 that number had increased to sixty-three. Lee’s slaves consisted of laborers and house workers and a few skilled craftsmen. Lee opposed the slave system, however, and his first motion in the Virginia House of Burgesses, in 1758, was one protesting slavery and the slave trade.

Yes, his father Thomas Lee had been an original founder of the Ohio Company, and his shares had devolved to his children. In 1759 he became one of the founders of the town of Warrenton; the county seat of Faquier was situated on his lands. In 1763 Richard Henry Lee and four of his brother joined George Washington in organizing the Mississippi Adventure, a land company that hoped to secure a Royal grant of two and a half million acres along the Mississippi River. The Proclamation of 1763 squelched both the Ohio Company and the Mississippi Adventure, however.

Richard Henry Lee raised a volunteer militia company during the French and Indian War. He offered his company’s service to British General Edward Braddock in March 1755 but was turned down. He later served as captain of a volunteer company of light horse and as a colonel of the militia. Most of his early work in the House of Burgesses revolved around supplying the Virginia militia, and in 1779 and 1781 he took an active part in organizing the defense of the Potomac against British incursions.

• Richard Henry Lee’s political career began in 1755 when he was appointed a justice of the peace in Westmoreland County. Three years later he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, and served in that body until its disbandment during the Revolutionary War. Afterwards he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1777, 1780, 1785.

• Lee served in the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1779, 1784 to 1785, and in 1787. He served as president pro tempore during the Second Congress and as president of Congress from 1784 to 1785. He served in the United States Senate from 1789 to 1792.

• Richard Henry Lee often found himself serving on important committees, some of which thrust him into the center of political controversary. In 1757 he joined forces with Virginia Governor Robert Dinwiddie in opposing the powerful speaker and treasurer of Virginia, John Robinson, who was misappropriating colonial funds to the advantage of his political cronies. Lee introduced the motion in the House of Burgesses to appoint a committee to inquire into the state of the treasury, leading to the separation of the two offices.

• In 1764 Lee led Virginia resistance to the Declaratory Act and was the leading member of the special committee charged with drafting addresses to the king and the House of Lords protesting the Act.

• The following year, 1765, Lee opposed the Stamp Act, and drafted the Westmoreland Articles of Association formed to oppose it.

• Lee opposed the Townshend duties of 1767 that placed a tax on tea, and introduced a motion in the House of Burgesses calling for a petition to the king outlining the colonies’ grievances.

• In 1768 Lee suggested that the American colonies organize committees of correspondence as a way of facilitating colonial communication and coordinating colonial resistance against Great Britain.

• Lee wrote a report for the House of Burgesses on the subject of opening up navigation of the Potomac River to Fort Cumberland, Maryland, in 1769.

• When the first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in 1774, Richard Henry Lee attended as one of the seven-man Virginia delegation. In congress he served on dozens of committees and earned a reputation as a fine orator and writer.

• In 1776 Lee was appointed to the committee designated to draft a Declaration of Rights of the Colonies. Lee introduced the resulting bill, the Declaration of Independence, on 7 June 1776. The bill was adopted on 2 July and ratified on 4 July 1776.

• At the same time that the declaration committee was considering its important work, Lee was with George Wythe drafting a new state constitution for Virginia. Immediately after the signing of the Declaration Lee departed for Virginia to lobby for their plan, and the Virginia Convention ultimately ratified a similar proposal.

• The following year, Lee led the effort in Congress to recall and investigate the American commissioner in Paris, Silas Deane, entering a controversy that lasted for years.

• That same year, Lee wrote the first national Thanksgiving Day proclamation, issued on 31 October 1777.

• In 1777 and 1778 Lee was drawn into the controversy surrounding the so-called Conway Cabal, an effort to remove George Washington as commander of the Continental Army. Although Lee was a friend and avid supporter of Washington, Lee had to defend himself against charges that he was taking part in the plot when a series of forged letters was circulated purporting to show Lee’s involvement.

• Richard Henry Lee was an antifederalist who tended to support the proposed Constitution, provided it could be amended before being voted upon. To that end he proposed amendments and supported the Bill of Rights, but he did not attend the Constitutional Convention. He did accept, however, the office of Senator under the new government, and in fact gained more votes than any other contender. In the Senate Lee guarded the antifederalist positions but was known as a moderate with whom one could compromise.

• The above is a bare-boned outline Richard Henry Lee’s political career. He was an energetic and important member of every body that he served in, and his oratory skills earned him the title of Cicero of the American Revolution.

Richard Henry Lee died at Chantilly, his estate in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on 19 June 1794. The last two years of his life he was greatly enfeebled, and for the last six months of his life he mostly was confined to his home.

In the so-called Burnt House Field Graveyard at the Lee Family estate, Mount Pleasant, in Westmoreland County, along with his parents and grandparents, and between his two wives.

Richard Henry Lee has been the subject of several biographies. They include Oliver Chitwood’s Richard Henry Lee: Statesman of the Revolution (Morgantown, West Virginia, 1967), and more recently, J. Kent McGaughy’s Richard Henry Lee of Virginia: A Portrait of an American Revolutionary (Lanham, Maryland, 2004). Cazenove Gardner Lee, Jr.’s Lee Chronicle: Studies of the Early Generations of the Lees of Virginia (edited by Dorthy Mills Parker; New York, 1957) includes an extended treatment of Richard Henry Lee.

John Carter Matthews’s Richard Henry Lee (edited by Edward M. Riley, Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission, 1976) is a good short overview of Richard Henry Lee’s life and political career. Earlier works include Richard Henry Lee’s Memoir of the Life of Richard Henry Lee (2 vols.; Philadelphia, 1825) and James Ballagh’s The Letters of Richard Henry Lee (2 vols.; New York, 1911–1914).

Unpublished scholarly work on Lee include Paul Chadwick Bowers, Jr., Richard Henry Lee and the Continental Congress: 1774–1779 (Ph.D. thesis, Duke University, 1965), and Mary Elizabeth Virginia, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia: A Biography (Ph.D. thesis, State University of New York, Buffalo, 1992).