| Notes |
- John was a clothier.
The Lee family, in the United States of America, is a
historically significant Virginia political family, whose many
prominent members are known for their accomplishments in politics and
the military. They are descended from the Lees of Shropshire, England,
and became prominent in colonial America when Colonel Richard Lee (the
Immigrant) immigrated to Virginia and made his fortune in tobacco.
Prominent members of the family include Thomas Lee (16901750), a
founder of the Virginia of the House of Burgesses; Francis Lightfoot
Lee (17341797) and Richard Henry Lee (17321794), signers of the
United States Declaration of Independence; and, most famously, General
Robert E. Lee (18071870) Confederate States of America commander in
the United States Civil War. President Zachary Taylor was also a
descendant of Colonel Richard Lee. .
Most recently, family members have marked over two hundred years
of political service in the United States, as Blair Lee III, a
descendant of Richard Henry Lee, served as Lieutenant Governor of
Maryland from 1971-1979 and Acting Governor of Maryland from
19771979.
They descend from the Lees of Shropshire. The name was originally
de la Lee, probably from Norman times. The Lees of Shropshire have had
a substantial estate near Bridgnorth for 500 years. In one form or
another their Coton Hall goes back perhaps to the 11th century.
In the U.S. the family began when Colonel Richard Lee (the
Emigrant) emigrated to Virginia and made his fortune in tobacco. They
first gained wider significance with Thomas Lee (16901750). He became
a member of the House of Burgesses and later went on to found the Ohio
Company.
Thomas Lee[1] (16901750) married Hannah Harrison[3] Ludwell:
their children, like the descendants of Thomas Lee's brother Henry
Lee, included a number of prominent Revolutionary War and
pre-Revolution political figures.
Thomas and Hannah Lee's two eldest children were Philip Ludwell
Lee (17261775) and Hannah Lee (17281782).
Thomas Ludwell Lee (1730-1778) was a member of the Virginia
Delegates and a major editor of George Mason's Virginia Declaration of
Rights (1776), a precursor to the United States Declaration of
Independence, which was signed by his brothers Richard Henry Lee
(17321794) and Francis Lightfoot Lee (1734-1797).
Richard Henry Lee was a delegate to Continental Congress from
Virginia and president of that body, 1774, later serving as President
of the United States in Congress assembled under the Articles of
Confederation, and United States Senator from Virginia (17891792)
under the new United States Constitution.
Younger siblings included Alice Lee (1736-1818), who married
American Chief Physician William Shippen, Jr.[4] and diplomats William
Lee (b. 1739, d. 1795) and Arthur Lee (b. 1740, d. 1792).
General Henry Lee III, "Light Horse Harry," also served as
Governor of Virginia, and was the father of Robert E. Lee. Henry
Lee's grandson, Henry Lee III (1756 - 1818), known as "Light Horse
Harry," was a Princeton graduate who served with great distinction
under General George Washington in the American Revolutionary War, and
was the only officer below the rank of General to receive the "Gold
Medal," awarded for his leadership at the Battle of Paulus Hook in New
Jersey, on August 19, 1779. He was Governor of Virginia from
1791-1794. Among his six children was Robert Edward Lee, later the
famed Confederate general during the American Civil War.
Henry Lee III's brothers were the noted Richard Bland Lee, a
two-term U.S. Congressman from Virginia, and Charles Lee (17581815),
Attorney General of the United States from 17951801.
Robert E. Lee (18071870), was the son of Henry Lee III, and
probably the most famous member of the Lee family. He served as
Confederate general in the United States Civil War.
He was married to Mary Anna Randolph Custis, who was a
great-granddaughter of Martha Washington and also was Lee's first
cousin thrice removed (being a descendant of Colonel Richard Lee the
Immigrant through Robert Carter I).
R.E. Lee's children included George Washington Custis Lee and
William H. Fitzhugh Lee. Other Lee relations who were General Offciers
during the Civil War were Samuel Phillips Lee ; Richard
Lucian Page ; [Edwin Gray Lee] . Indirect
relations of R.E.Lee who were C.S General Officers were William N.
Pendleton and Virginia Military Institute graduate William Henry
Fitzhugh Payne.
But was isn't known so widely is that General Lee's family came
from Shropshire, and the family home still exists.
For 500 years, the Lee family owned a sizeable chunk of the
county in the parish of Alveley, near Bridgnorth.
The family, originally-named de la Lee and probably of Norman
descent, lived in Coton Hall from the 1300s onwards. The tombs of of
two Lees with effigies are in Acton Burnell Church.
And it's only because the present-day Coton Hall was put up for
sale early in 2003 that the Lees of Shropshire came to light again.
Present day Coton Hall was built soon after 1800 for Harry
Lancelot Lee, in the Georgian style. At the time the estate ran to 5,
000 acres.
Although the present building is only some 200 years old, the Lee
family's connections with the land go back 1,000 years. The previous
building on the site was also called Coton Hall - and it was from here
that Robert E. Lee's ancestors left for America in the 1600s.
They originally went there to trade, and one or two returned to
England after a few years, but one branch forged new lives for
themselves in the young country, acquiring land and power.
Two of them, Richard Henry and Francis Lightfoot Lee, were the
only brothers to sign the Declaration of Independence.
General Robert E. Lee's father was 'Light Horse Harry' Lee, a
famous soldier of the American War of Independence, where he was known
for his courage in fighting the British.
And by a bizarre paradox, he may well have been reponsible for
the deaths of soldiers from Shropshire - elements of the 53rd
Regiment, which later became the Shropshire Regiment, were all but
wiped out and the remainder captured at the Battle of Saratoga in
1777.
Light Horse Harry resigned from the army as soon as the British
were defeated, and settled down to raise the family that included the
young general. Well, maybe that's a little kind - before long he
deserted Robert and his mother and left them to fend for themselves in
Virginia.
Harry bolted to the Caribbean in search of fortune.
Robert E. Lee went into military college at West Point and became
a career soldier in the U.S. Army. He graduated from the West Point
military school with not a single demerit point - something no-one has
ever done before or since.
He joined the U.S. Army but offered his services to the breakaway
Confederates when the American Civil War in the 1860s. This made him a
traitor in the eyes of the Union, but Lee sided with the Confederate
states because his home state of Virginia was one of them.
After four years of war it was Lee who signed the surrender. Lee
narrowly avoided trial for treason, but was instead stripped of his
rights as a citizen. Despite this he refused to be bitter, doing his
utmost to embrace the new United States until his death in 1870.
Today Lee is perceived as an American hero, and not just an icon
for Virginia or the southern states whose troops he led. He was
finally pardoned of any wrongdoing more than 100 years later by
President Jimmy Carter.
According to the previous owners of Coton Hall, several of Lee's
descendents have been to visit and cast their eye over the ancestral
seat.
But little remains of the house that Robert E. Lee's ancestors
would have known.
In the grounds of Coton Hall is one of the last remnants of the early
buildings - the ruins of a chapel that probably dates from the 13th
Century. But it's underground where the strongest traces of the old
Coton Hall remain. The house's cellar is two storeys deep and in the
lower of the two levels includes the entrance to a tunnel. According
to the estate agent FPD Savills, the tunnel runs all the way to
Alveley village two miles away, although it's been concreted off
beyond the chapel for safety reasons.
Coton Hall passed out of the Lee family when Harry Lancelot Lee
died in 1821 and the house was immediately sold, ending the Lees' long
association with this part of the world. In 1878 the chapel roof
collapsed and all the Lee monuments were moved to Alveley church.
The house itself was extended in about 1860, when a new wing and
an Italianate tower were added, but apart from that the house has
survived remarkably well - all the fireplaces and cornices are
original, for example.
The house, including the 6.5 acres of land it stands in, was sold
in 2003 with a guide price of £1.25 million.
(Source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/shropshire/content/articles/2005/04/08/history_le
e_house_feature.shtml)
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Abt 1590 - 1630 (40 years)