Thomas Lee (Virginia colonist)
Thomas Lee | |
---|---|
House of Burgesses | |
In office 1723–1733 Serving with George Eskridge | |
Preceded by | Daniel McCarty |
Succeeded by | Daniel McCarty Jr. |
Council of State of Virginia | |
In office 1733–1750 | |
Royal Governor of Virginia | |
In office 1749–1750 | |
Preceded by | William Gooch |
Succeeded by | Robert Dinwiddie |
Personal details | |
Born | c. 1690 Laetitia Corbin |
Residence(s) | Machodoc River, later Stratford Hall Plantation |
Alma mater | College of William & Mary |
When Lee married
Early life and education
Thomas Lee was born around 1690 at
Lee attended college at the
Lee's political career began in 1710 when he was appointed Naval Officer of the Northern Potomac River region. His father previously held the position, and resigned in favor of this son. The lucrative position involved collecting taxes for tobacco exported to England. In 1711, two of Lee's uncles, Thomas Corbin and Edmund Jenings, helped Lee become the Virginia agent for the Northern Neck Proprietary. This property consisted of all the land between the Potomac and Rappahnnock rivers, with Lee responsible for collecting the quit-rent.[3]
Fellow planter Robert "King" Carter had previously held the position as Virginia-based agent, as had Jenings, and Carter regained it from this man in 1720 or 1722. While Jenings was in England, the agency's offices were located at Machodoc and under Lee's supervision.[6] This lucrative position and multiple accusations of mismanagement led to decades of animosity between the Lee and Carter families.[7][8]
In 1714, upon his father's death, Lee inherited lands in
Lee and his brother Henry negotiated a lease for 99 years on the Machodoc plantation from Richard's widow after his death. While in England, Lee also bought Clifts Plantation, on the Potomac River in Westmoreland County.[9]
Political career
In 1720 Thomas Lee attempted to begin a political career as one of the two Burgesses representing Westmoreland County. While voters clearly elected George Eskridge, the contest between Thomas Lee and fellow planter Daniel McCarty proved close. Although Lee was initially announced as the winner, McCarty successfully contested the results. McCarty was also elected as the burgess to accompany George Eskridge in 1723 but died before the 1726 session, so Lee succeeded him.[10] Lee did win election in 1728 but relinquished the seat upon appointment to the legislature's upper house, the Governor's Council, in 1733, and McCarty's son, Daniel McCarty Jr. succeeded him.[11]
Lee also served as a vestryman for
When Governor William Gooch was recalled to England in 1749, Lee was the longest serving member and thus President of the King's Council of Virginia and Commander-in-Chief of the colony. Nominated for appointment as Governor of Virginia by King George II, he died before it took place.[13][14]
Marriage and family
Lee thought that marriage was not only important between two individuals but for their families. A nephew of his later said, "Our Late Hon[ora]ble & worthy Unkle Presid[ent] Lee said that the first fall & ruin of families and estates were mostly Occasioned by Imprudent Matches to Imbeggar families and estates & to beget a race of beggars."[15] He was engaged to Jenny Wilson in 1716. That year he returned to England to formalize the lease to the plantation before he married. Before his return, Jenny Wilson had found another husband, James Roscoe. Lee learned this from William Byrd.[7]
In May 1722, Thomas Lee married
- Richard Lee (b. 1723)
- Philip Ludwell Lee (February 24, 1726 – February 21, 1775)
- John Lee (b. 1728 d. 1782)
- Hannah Lee Corbin (February 1729 – 1782)
- Thomas Ludwell Lee (December 13, 1730 – April 13, 1778); a member of the Virginia Delegates and editor of the Virginia Declaration of Rights.[17]
- Richard Henry Lee (January 20, 1732 – January 19, 1794); signer of the United States Declaration of Independence[18]
- Mount Airy. Tayloe built Menokinfor his daughter and her new husband.
- Alice Lee (June 4, 1736 – March 25, 1817)
- William Lee (August 31, 1737 – June 27, 1795)
- James Lee (b. and d. 1739)
- Arthur Lee (December 21, 1740 – December 12, 1792)
1728 was a tragic year for Lee and his family. On January 29, thieves broke into the house, stealing the Lee family plate, jewelry, and other articles of value, and upon leaving, set fire to the plantation house at Machodoc. The fire destroyed the entire plantation, including Thomas' office, the barns, and the outhouses. Almost all of the Lees' possessions were destroyed, as well as up to 10,000 pounds in cash (equal to £1,438,861 today).[19] The house quickly burned, and Hannah Lee, pregnant with her fourth child, had to be thrown from her chamber window on the second floor. This resulted in Hannah's miscarriage of a son (they named him John). Also injured in the fire was a young enslaved girl who died of her wounds.[20] Virginia Governor William Gooch blamed transported convicts for the crime. It is said that Col. Lee's loss was not less than 50,000 pounds (equal to £7,194,304 today). British officials later gave Lee 300 pounds (equal to £43,166 today) as compensation, and Queen Caroline also gave him money from her private purse to help finance the rebuilding.[21][22] The convicts and an accomplice were later found guilty. Their punishment is unknown because the trial records were destroyed.[7] When construction began on the new Lee mansion, the family stayed with Thomas's brother Henry at Lee Hall. Lee sold the "Machodoc" estate to Richard Lee III's son, George Lee, who built "Mount Pleasant".
Lee's political career required trips to Williamsburg, causing him to be away from his family for extended periods. Lee managed to make the 80-mile (130-km) journey to his family and to be with his wife at the births of each of their children.[23] Several of the sons became high-ranking political figures and were active in the American Revolutionary War and post-war politics. Richard Henry was a senator from Virginia to the United States Senate, and Francis Lightfoot was in the Virginia Senate. Lee's youngest sons William Lee and Arthur Lee served as diplomats to various European nations.[24] William, along with Jan de Neufville, drafted an unofficial treaty between the United States and the Dutch Republic which Great Britain used as a casus belli for the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War.[25]
Ohio Company
Lee was appointed commissioner, along with
In 1747, Lee co-founded the
Stratford Hall
With Lee's higher rank in society and wealth, he decided he needed to build a mansion to secure his position as one of the Virginia
Between 1719 and 1746, Lee acquired vast holdings in what are now
Later years, death and legacy
Hannah Harrison died at "Stratford" on January 25, 1749, having borne eleven children.[7] She was buried in the old family burying ground, called the "Burnt House Fields", at "Mount Pleasant". Her tombstone was later removed to "Stratford Hall", probably by Henry Lee, who built the new vault at that place. On November 14, 1750, Thomas Lee died at age sixty and was buried in the old "Burnt House Fields" at Mount Pleasant. According to his will, he wished to be buried in between his wife and his mother.[7] He bequeathed Stratford Hall to his eldest son, Philip Ludwell Lee, and the Machodoc plantation to his nephew, George Lee.[7]
Notes
- ^ "Shropshire: House with its roots in history". BBC. Archived from the original on March 12, 2007. Retrieved July 14, 2009.
- ^ Alexander, Stratford Hall and the Lees Connected with its History (1912) p.28
- ^ a b Tillson (2010).
- ^ A Catalogue of the College of William and Mary in Virginia From its Foundation to the Present Time (Williamsburg, 1859)
- ^ Alexander, Stratford Hall and the Lees Connected with its History (1912) p.47
- ^ Fairfax Harrison, Virginia Land Grants: A Study of Conveyancing in Relation to Colonial Politics (1925; reprinted, New York, 1979), pp.98-100.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Calhoun. Thomas Lee of Stratford, 1690-1750: Founder of a Virginia Dynasty (1991)
- ^ Dowdey, Clifford. The Virginia Dynasties: The Emergence of 'King' Carter and the Golden Age (1969) p.354
- ^ Martin, Behind the Scenes in Washington: Being a Complete and Graphic Account of the Credit Mobilier Investigation (1873) p. 34
- ^ Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond, Virginia State Library 1978) pp. 71n.12, 73
- ^ Leonard p. 75 n. 27
- ^ Calhoun, Jeanne A., "Thomas Lee 1690-1750: A Preliminary Report," (prepared for the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association, 1988), pp. 10-14.
- ^ Hall, Executive Journals, V, pp.299-300. 53.Lee, Lee of Virginia pp. 121-123.
- ^ Alexander, Stratford Hall and the Lees Connected with its History (1912) p.48
- ^ Henry Lee to Richard Lee, 22 Feb. 1758, Box 1, Custis-Lee Papers, Library of Congress
- ISBN 978-0-19-507478-9. Retrieved July 14, 2009.
- ^ Alexander, Stratford Hall and the Lees Connected with its History (1912) p.73
- ^ a b Alexander, Stratford Hall and the Lees Connected with its History (1912) p. 86 & p. 103
- ^ Maryland Gazette, 25 March - 1 April 1729
- ^ The Lees of Virginia p.41
- ^ Hamilton and Hamilton, The Life of Robert E. Lee for Boys and Girls (1917), p.3
- ^ Alexander, Stratford Hall and the Lees Connected with its History (1912) pp.48,59
- ^ Carl Bridenbaugh, Seat of Empire: The Political Role of Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg (Williamsburg, 1950), p. 18; Westmoreland County Court Orders, 1731-1739, Part 1, p.46A, Westmoreland County Courthouse.
- ^ Alexander, Stratford Hall and the Lees Connected with its History (1912) p.110
- ^ "William Lee". Lee Family Digital Archive. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved August 15, 2007.
- ^ Hall, Executive JournalsV, p. 139.
- ^ "Ratified treaty # 3 A Treaty Held at the Town of Lancaster, By the Honourable the Lieutenant Governor of the Province, and the Honourable the Commissioners for the Province of Virginia and Maryland, with the Indians of the Six Nations in June 1744. Van Doren, C. and Boyd, J. P. (Eds.). (1938). Indian Treaties Printed by Benjamin Franklin, 1736–1762. Philadelphia, PA: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 41–79". University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Retrieved April 22, 2013.
- ^ Charles Carter Lee Papers, Box 9.
- ^ Jack and Marion Kaniinkow, eds., A List of Emigrants to America 1718-1759 (Baltimore, 1964), p. 163; Calhoun, "Thomas Lee," p. 16.
References
- Alexander, Frederick Warren (1912). Stratford Hall and the Lees Connected with its History. Oak Grove, Virginia: Frederick Warren Alexander.
- Bridenbaugh, Carl (1958). Seat of Empire: The Political Role of Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg. New York, New York: ISBN 9780910412513.
- Calhoun, Jeanne A. (December 1991). "Thomas Lee of Stratford, 1690-1750: Founder of a Virginia Dynasty". Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Magazine. XLI (1). Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved July 14, 2009.
- Campbell, Charles (1860). History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. B. Lippincott & co.
History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia.
- Hamilton, Mary; J.G. de Roulhac Hamilton (1917). The Life of Robert E. Lee for Boys and Girls. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
The Life of Robert E. Lee for Boys and Girls.
- Lee, Edmund Jennings (1895). Lee of Virginia 1642-1892. Genealogical Pub. Co. ISBN 0-8063-0604-1.
- Tillson, Albert H. (2010). "Lee, Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)