LVII.
THOMAS LEE.
LVII. President of the Council.
LVII. September 5, 1749, to February 12, 1751.
Thomas Lee, President of the Council, succeeded President
Robinson in the administration of the government of
Virginia, in 1749. In this station he continued for some time,
until the King thought proper to appoint him Governor of
the Colony; but he died before his commission reached him.
Thomas Lee was the fourth son of Richard and Lettice
(Corbin) Lee, and was descended in the third generation
from Richard Lee, who emigrated from Shropshire, England,
and settled in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1641.
This Richard Lee, known as "The Emigrant," had several
children; the eldest two, John and Richard, were educated
at Oxford, England, where John took his degree as Doctor of
Physic, and, returning to Virginia, died before his father.
Richard, the eldest son then living, born 1647, spent most of
his life in study, and usually wrote his notes in Greek, Hebrew,
or Latin, many of which are now in Virginia. He was
a member of the Council in Virginia, and held other offices
of honor and profit. He married Lettice Corbin, daughter of
Henry Corbin, Gentleman. She died October 6, 1706, aged
49 years, and left the following children, viz.: Richard,
Philip, Francis, Thomas, Henry, and Mary. Philip is the
progenitor of Francis Lee Smith, to whom this book, in deep
veneration, is dedicated. Thomas is the subject of the present
article, and Henry is the progenitor of General Robert
Edward Lee.
In Cople Parish, in the Burnt-House fields, at Mount
Pleasant, Westmoreland County, Virginia, is a tombstone
with Latin inscriptions, of which the following are translations,
viz.: First:
"Here lieth the body of Richard Lee, Esq'r, born in Virginia, son of
Richard Lee, Gentleman, descended of an ancient family of Merton-Regis,
in Shropshire."
"While he exercised the office of a magistrate he was a zealous promoter
of the public good. He was very skillful in the Greek and
Latin languages, and other parts of polite learning. He quietly resigned
his soul to God, whom he always devoutly worshipped, on the 12th day of
March, in the year 1714, in the 68th year of his age."
Second:
"Near by is interred the body of Lettuce, his faithful wife, daughter of
Henry Corbin, Gentleman. A most affectionate mother, she was also
distinguished by piety toward God, charity to the poor, and kindness to all.
She died on the 6th day of October, 1706, in the 49th year of her age.
The will of the first Richard Lee, dated 1663, can be seen
in Mr. Charles Campbell's History of Virginia, p. 157. He
was devoted to Virginia, and was bent on settling all of his
family in the Colony. So firm was he in this purpose that
by his will he ordered an estate he had in England, near
Stratford-by-Bow, in Middlesex, at that time worth eight or
nine hundred pounds per annum, to be sold and the money
to be divided among his children. The value of this settlement
in the Colony of Virginia is read in the pages of her
history.
Thomas Lee was born about the year 1680, and (as says
his son William) "though with none but a common Virginia
education, yet having strong natural parts, long after he was
a man he learned the languages without any assistance but
his own genius, and became a tolerable adept in the Greek
and Latin. By his industry and parts he acquired a considerable
fortune, and though he had very few acquaintances in
England, he was so well known by his reputation that upon
his receiving a loss by fire the late Queen Caroline sent him
over a bountiful present out of her own privy purse." This
establishes the source from whence came the means of building
the present house at Stratford, in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
In the thickness of its walls and excellency of its
architecture it is not surpassed in Virginia. It has sometimes
been called "The Governor's House," because the
owner and builder was Thomas Lee. He married in 1721,
Hannah, daughter of Philip Ludwell, and granddaughter of
Lady Berkeley (widow of Sir William Berkeley), who married,
thirdly, 1680, Philip Ludwell.
Thomas Lee left by his marriage with Miss Ludwell six
sons and two daughters. These sons, Philip Ludwell,
Thomas Ludwell, Richard Henry, Francis Lightfoot, William,
and Arthur, are names familiar to every student of
Virginia history.
Thomas Lee was long a member of the House of Burgesses
and of the Council, and as President of that body, on the
untimely death of Governor Robinson, became the Acting
Governor of the Colony. He was a member of the famous
Ohio Company, and a man of enterprise and wisdom. He
died early in the year 1751. The following inscription is on
a slab in the family vault at Stratford:
"In memory of the
HON. THOMAS LEE,
whose body was buried at Pope's Creek Church,
five miles above his country seat, Stratford-Hall,
in 1751.
It was near Pope's Creek Church, on the road from Westmoreland
Court-House to King George County, that Gen.
Geo. Washington was born, and here he was baptized. Historic
ground.
Of the six sons of Thomas Lee, of Stratford, mention must
be made here, that the father may participate in the greatness
of his children:
Philip Ludwell Lee, the eldest, succeeded his father at Stratford.
He married a Miss Steptoe, and their daughter, Matilda,
married General Henry Lee, of the Revolutionary Army.
Thomas Ludwell Lee settled in Stafford, and married a
Miss Aylett.
Richard Henry Lee was educated in England, returned to
Virginia in his 19th year, and married first a Miss Aylett,
and second a Mrs. Pinkard, who was a Miss Gaskins. He
took an active part in the Revolution, and his interesting life
has been written and preserved to us by his grandson, Richard
Henry Lee.
Francis Lightfoot Lee also participated largely in the
stirring events of the Revolution, and was regarded as one of
the ablest orators and statesmen of that day.
William Lee became Sheriff and an Alderman of London,
and subsequently "commercial agent for Congress, in Europe
and their Commissioner at the Courts of Berlin and Vienna."
Arthur Lee, the sixth and youngest son, as a scholar, a
writer, a philosopher, and a diplomatist, was equalled by few
of his contemporaries. He studied Physic in Edinburgh,
where he took his degree, but disliking the profession, he
studied Law. "The services rendered by him to his country
as her Minister at foreign Courts were most valuable."
