Richard Henry Lee

He was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia to Col. Thomas Lee and Hannah Harrison Ludwell Lee on January 20, 1732. He was raised and came from a line of military officers, diplomats, and legislators. His father, Thomas Lee, was the governor of Virginia before his death in 1750. Lee spent most of his early life in Stratford, Virginia with his family at Stratford Hall. Here he was tutored and taught in a variety of skills, and witnessed the very beginning of political career as his father sent him around to neighboring planters with the intention for Lee to become associated with neighboring men of like prominence. In 1748, at 16, Lee left Virginia for Yorkshire, England, to complete his formal education at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield. Both of his parents died in 1750 and, in 1753, after touring Europe, he returned to Virginia to help his brothers settle the estate his parents had left behind.[1]

In 1757, Lee was appointed justice of the peace in Westmoreland County. In 1758 he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he met Patrick Henry. An early advocate of independence, Lee became one of the first to create Committees of Correspondence among the many independence-minded Americans in the various colonies. In 1766, almost ten years before the American Revolutionary War, Lee is credited with having authored the Westmoreland Resolution[2] which was publicly signed by prominent landowners who met at Leedstown, Westmoreland County, Virginia on February 27, 1766. This resolution was signed by four brothers of George Washington as well as Gilbert Campbell.

American Revolution

In August 1774, Lee was chosen as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. In Lee's Resolution on June 7, 1776 during the Second Continental Congress, Lee put forth the motion to the Continental Congress to declare Independence from Great Britain, which read (in part):

Resolved: That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

Lee had returned to Virginia by the time Congress voted on and adopted the Declaration of Independence, but he signed the document when he returned to Congress.

Lee Family Coat of Arms

Lee was the son of Col. Thomas Lee, Hon. (1690–1750) of "Stratford Hall", Westmoreland Co., Virginia. Thomas married Hannah Harrison Ludwell (1701–1750).

Lee married first on December 5, 1757, Anne Aylett (1738–1768), daughter of William Aylett and Elizabeth Eskridge (1719). Anne died December 12, 1768, at Chantille, Westmoreland Co., Virginia. The couple had six children, four of whom survived infancy.

Lee remarried in June or July 1769 to Anne (Gaskins) Pinckard. The couple had seven children, five of whom survived infancy.

Lee honored his brother, Francis Lightfoot Lee (another signer of the Articles of Confederation and the Declaration of Independence), by naming his fourth son after him.

Richard Henry Lee died on June 19, 1794, at the age of 62.

Lee is recognized as a Founding Father of the United States. Richard Henry Lee Elementary School in Rossmoor, California and Richard Henry Lee School in Chicago, Illinois are named in his honor. Richard Henry Lee Elementary in Glen Burnie, Maryland is also named after him.

The World War II Liberty Ship SS Richard Henry Lee was named in his honor.

The Chantilly Archaeological Site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.[6]

Lee is portrayed as a character in the 1969 musical 1776. He was portrayed by Ron Holgate in both the Broadway cast and in the 1972 film. In one scene, Lee performs a song called "The Lees of Old Virginia," in which he explains how he knows he will be able to convince the Virginia House of Burgesses to allow him to propose independence and celebrates his own status as a Lee, one of the First Families of Virginia. The character is presented as vain, but not very bright, serving the play as a comic device rather than a historically based portrayal of Lee.

Lee is portrayed by Paul Fitzgerald in the 2008 HBO miniseries John Adams. Although Lee had returned to Virginia, and thus was not present to vote on the Resolution for Independence, the miniseries portrays him as being present and casting the vote for the Virginia delegation. The miniseries does show the fact that Lee always had his hand wrapped in black silk to hide the deformation caused by a hunting accident.

• McGaughy, Kent J. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia: A Portrait of an American Revolutionary (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003).
• Selby, John E. "Richard Henry Lee, John Adams, and the Virginia Constitution of 1776." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 84.4 (1976): 387-400. online
• Unger, Harlow Giles. First Founding Father: Richard Henry Lee and the Call for Independence (2017) online review

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Richard Henry Lee.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Richard Henry Lee

• United States Congress. "Richard Henry Lee (id: L000201)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• President Richard Henry Lee
• Richard Henry Lee
• Biography by Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, 1856
• Richard Henry Lee papers in the Manuscripts and Archives Division at The New York Public Library.
• Richard Henry Lee at Find a Grave
• Richard Henry Lee Bio
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lee, Richard Henry" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.