| Notes |
- Richard Henry Lee b. 20 Jan 1731/32, Stratford Hall, Westmoreland Co.,
VA, d. 19 Jun 1794, Chantilly, Westmoreland Co., VA, m. (2) Jul 1769,
Anne Gaskins (daughter of Col. Thomas and Sarah (Eustace) Gaskins, V).
After the course of private tuition at home, Richard was sent to the
Wakefield Academy, in Yorkshire, England; on leaving that school, he
made a brief tour of northern Europe, and returned to Virginia, being
then only 19 years old. For some years, prior to his marriage, he
resided with his eldest brother at Stratford Hall, and passed the time
in diligent reading of the ancient classics and modern histories. His
taste for the classics was constantly displayed in after life by the
frequent and appropriate quotations he made from them to enrich his
diction or to fortify his argument. The greater part of the estate
left to Richard by his father, was in Prince William Co., but he
continued to live in Westmoreland County even after he married. It is
said that his eldest brother was so devoted to him, that he insisted
that he should build near Stratford, and leased for him, the estate
called Chantilly. It appears that this name was given by Richard Henry
and that the estate was formerly known as Hollis Marsh; it was
situated about 3 miles below Stratford, and was also on the Potomac
River. Later in life, Richard paid a rental for it to General Henry
Lee, and mentions in his own will that he only held the estate on a
lease. When Richard was 23, he raised a company to join General
Braddock in his ill-fated expedition against the French and Indians;
their aid was declined by the haughty Englishman, who had no use for
provincials. When Richard was 25, he was appointed as Justice for
Westmoreland, a position of influence and much sought after in those
days. It was about this time that he made his first appearance in the
political arena [1757], by being chosen member of the House of
Burgesses; he continued a member of that body, when not in Congress,
until 1792, when he retired from active public life. His first effort
in that body was a speech against the importation of slaves to the
Colony; the proposition was to lay so heavy a tax upon the
importation of slaves as effectually to put an end to that iniquitous
and disgraceful traffic within the Colony. When the proposed Stamp
tax was under discussion and before its full purport was understood,
Mr. Lee applied for the position of collector under it. For this he
was afterwards censured; he defended himself in a letter published in
the Virginia Gazette on 25 Jul 1766, stating in one portion it:
.I
considered that to err is certainly the portion of humanity, but that
it was the business of an honest man to recede from error as soon as
he discovered it, and that the strongest principle of duty called upon
every citizen to prevent the ruin of his country, without being
restrained by any consideration which could interrupt the primary
obligation
. As stated in his long letter Mr. Lee was the one to
bring before the Assembly the Act of Parliament, claiming their right
to tax America, and he served on the special committee appointed to
draft an address to the King, a memorial to the House of Lords, and a
remonstrance to the Commons. He was selected to prepare the first and
last of these three papers. Shortly afterwards, he organized the
Westmoreland Association of patriots and wrote their resolutions.
The articles were chiefly a direct protest against the Stamp Act, and
expressed their determination to exert every faculty to prevent the
execution of the said Stamp Act in any instance whatsoever within this
Colony. In 1773, the Virginia Assembly appointed a Committee of
Correspondence, of which Richard was a member. The first voice raised
was that of Patrick Henry; who in a speech it is said, of impassioned
eloquence, unfolded to his anxious listeners the perils and duties of
the hour. The second speaker was Richard Henry Lee, who supplementing
and enlarging on Henrys words, impressed the members with his wisdom
and sagacity. Such evidently was the result of his eloquence, for he
immediately took a leading place in that body. Mr. Lee was an active
and energetic member of many of the leading committees of this
Congress; from his pen emanated the memorial of Congress to the people
of British America, which has been generally considered a masterly
document. His most important and distinguished service was rendered on
the 7th of Jun 1776, when, in accordance with the instructions of the
Virginia Convention , and at the request of his colleagues, he
proposed the resolution for the independence of the colonies. The
motion was seconded by John Adams, of Massachusetts; the discussion
upon its adoption continued until the 10th of June, when a committee
was appointed to prepare a declaration, in accordance with this
motion. It is a uniform rule of all deliberative bodies to appoint the
member who has offered a resolution the chairman of the committee
selected to report on that motion. In this case, therefore, Mr. Lee
would have been chosen chairman of the committee for the drafting of
the Declaration of Independence, had he been present. On the evening
of the 10th of June, he received word of the serious illness of his
wife; he left Philadelphia to visit her on the very day this committee
was appointed. Thus an accidental sickness in his family probably
deprived him of the signal honor of being the author as well as the
mover of the Declaration of American Independence. It is said that the
English papers, which gave the first intelligence of the adoption of
the DOI, headed their columns with this line: Richard Henry Lee and
Patrick Henry have at last accomplished their object: The colonies
have declared themselves independent of the mother country. Mr. Lee
continued to serve in Congress for many years, being a member in
1778-80-84-87, and was one of the signers of the articles of
confederation in 1778. During the session of 1784, he occupied the
chair as President, being, it is said, the unanimous choice of all the
delegates present. He served some 100 committees during the sessions
of 1776-77. Mr. Lee opposed the adoption of the Constitution of 1787;
in this opposition, he was in agreement with George Mason, Patrick
Henry, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Jefferson and others, in Virginia,
and many of the ablest patriots of the time in other States. But,
after the ratification of the Constitution, he consented to serve as
one of the Senators from Virginia, mainly for the purpose of urging
some amendments which he believed to be needed; many of these he was
instrumental in securing. After many years of active service in
Congress, and all the while a member of the Virginia Assembly, he
finally, in 1792, retired from public life. Of Richard Henry Lees
personal appearance and the style of his oratory, William Wirt wrote:
His face was on the Roman model; his nose Caesarean; the port and
carriage of his head, leaning persuasively and gracefully forward; and
the whole contour, noble and fine. He had studied in the classics in
the true spirit of criticism. His taste had that delicate touch which
seized with intuitive certainty every beauty of an author, and his
genius that native affinity which combined them without effort. Into
every walk of literature and science he had carried this mind of
exquisite selection, and brought it back to the business of life,
crowned with every light of learning and decked with every wreath that
all the muses and all the graces could entwine. Nor did these light
decorations constitute the whole value of its freight. He possessed a
rich store of historical and political knowledge, with an activity of
observation and a certainty of judgment which turned that knowledge to
the very best account. He was not a lawyer by profession, but he
understood thoroughly the Constitution, both of the mother country and
of her colonies; and the elements also of civil and municipal law.
Thus, while his eloquence was free from those stiff and technical
restraints which habits of forensic speaking are apt to generate, he
had all the legal learning necessary to a statesman. He reasoned well,
and declaimed freely and splendidly. The note of his voice was deep
and melodious. It was not the cancerous voice of Cicero. He had lost
the use of one of his hands, which he kept constantly covered with a
black silk bandage, neatly fitted in the palm of his hand, but leaving
his thumb free; yet, notwithstand- ing this disadvantage, his gesture
was so graceful and highly finished that it is said that he acquired
it by practising before a mirror. Such was his promptitude that he
required no preparation for debate. He was ready for any subject as
soon as it was announced; and his speech was so copious, so rich, so
mellifluous, set off with such bewitching cadence of voice and such
captivating grace of action that, while you listened to him, you
desired to hear nothing superior, and indeed thought him perfect. He
had a quick sensibility and a fervid imagination. Dr. Rush said of
him, I never knew so great an orator whose speeches were so short.
Indeed, I might say that he could not speak long. He had conceived his
subject so clearly, and presented it so immediately to his hearers,
that there appeared nothing more to be said about it. He did not use
figures to ornament discourse, but made them the vehicles of
argument. Mr. Lee died two years after retirement. He was troubled
much with gout, which attacked his abdominal viscera, and caused him
great suffering, but, though his body became feeble, his mind retained
its vigor. His will was dated 18 June 1793, and probated in
Westmoreland Co., VA the 24th of June, 1794. He died at Chantilly on
the 19th of June, 1794, and was buried in the old family burial-place,
at the Burnt House Fields, Mt. Pleasant, as he desired in his will. Of
the home of Richard Henry Lee, little is known. Thomas Lee Shippen,
when describing his visit to Westmoreland, wrote his father that
Chantilly commands a much finer view than Stratford by reason of a
large bay into which the Potomac forms itself opposite Chantilly
..The
house is rather commodious than elegant. The sitting-room, which is
very well ornamented, is 18x30 feet, and the dining-room, 20x24. From
the inventory and appraisement of the furniture, etc., it is learned
that there were a dining room, library, parlor, and chamber on the
first floor. The hall being, as was usual, furnished as a
sitting-room, contained: a mahogany desk, twelve arm chairs, a round
and a square table, a covered walnut table, two boxes of tools, and a
trumpet. On the second floor there were four large chambers, and a
smaller one at the head of the stairs; two rooms in the third floor;
store rooms, and closets. The outbuildings mentioned were: kitchen,
dairy, blacksmith shop, stable, and barn. The enumeration of books in
the library showed about 500 which were appraised at L229 10s.7d. Of
money in the house at the time of his death, there were $54 silver,
valued at L16 4s.; in bank at Alexandria, L181 19s.7d.; Tobacco
notes for 13,907 pounds, nett. In 1783, Thomas Gaskins, Sr., of
Westmoreland, executed a gift deed to his daughter Anne Lee, now
intermarried with Richard Henry Lee. [Anne was the widow of Thomas
Pinkard, by whom she had at least one child].
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1732 - 1794 (62 years)