University of Virginia Library

THOMAS LEE

Thomas Lee, the fourth son of Richard and Lettice (Corbin) Lee,
and descended in the third generation from Richard Lee, who emigrated
from Shropshire, England, and settled in Westmoreland county, Virginia,
in 1641, was born about the year 1680. He married in 1721, Hannah,
daughter of Philip Ludwell, and granddaughter of Lady Berkeley
(widow of Sir William), who married, thirdly, in 1680, Philip Ludwell.
Thomas Lee was long a member of the House of Burgesses and of the
Council, and as President of that body after the death of John Robinson,
became the Acting Governor of Virginia, and but for his death,
which occurred in the early part of 1751, it was presumed, from the influence
of his connections in England, that he would have received the
appointment of Deputy or Lieutenant-Governor, for which, it is said, a
commission had been executed. He had been also the recipient of royal
bounty, it is said, upon the destruction of his residence by fire, being
then aided from the privy purse of Queen Caroline towards the building
of the famous "Stratford" mansion.

He was a member of the historical Ohio Company, and was a man
of great enterprise and sagacity. Rarely has a sire been so distinguished
in his offspring as was Thomas Lee, the father of six sons, severally
eminent among the lustrous patriots of the Revolution. The names of
Philip Ludwell and Thomas Ludwell Lee are indelibly engraven on the
pages of the history of Virginia, whilst the fame of Richard Henry and
of Francis Lightfoot Lee (signers of the instrument of American Freedom)

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CAPT. GEORGE PERCY,

Treasurer of the Colony of Virginia, and
Governor in 1609.

From the original at Syon House, England, seat of
the Earl of Northumberland.

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