Hon. Thomas LEE

  Noted events in his life were:

• Biography. Founder of the Ohio Company, a member of the governing Council of the colony, & acting governor of Virginia. In 1717, he purchased 1433 acres for Stratford Hall Plantation and, in the late 1730's, began building the brick Georgian Great House. A successful tobacco planter and land speculator, he owned more than 16,000 acres in VA and MD. In 1732, Thomas was named to His Majest's Council. President and Commander in Chief of the colony. Owned "Machodoc" estate.
Estate was known as Machodoc which was set on fire by imigrant felons from England who had been sternly treated by Thomas as a magistrate. Later he built Stratford starting in1738. It was 4800 acres at Thomas & Hannah's death.
Thomas was the son of Richard the Scholar. By the manner in which he combined materialist & political zeal, he would be a reincarnation of his grandfather, Richard the Founder.
While many familys suffered from a continuing depression in tobacco prices, Thomas was not limited to the modest agricultural revenue from lands his father bequeathed him, but drew a measure of wealth through the navel office and the Proprietary.
"President" Thomas Lee
Thomas, the fifth son of Richard Lee and Laetitia Corbin, his wife, was born at "Mt. Pleasant," in Westmoreland county, in 1690; died at "Stratford," in same county, on the 14th of November, 1750. Of his early days his son has written: "Thomas, the fourth son, though with none but a common Virginia Education, yet having strong natural parts, long after he was a man, he learned the Languages without any assistance but his own genius, and became a tolerable adept in Greek and Latin..... This Thomas, by his Industry and Parts, acquired a considerable Fortune; for, being a younger Brother, with many children, his Paternal Estate was very Small. He was also appointed of the Council, and though he had very few acquaintances in England, he was so well known by reputation that upon his receiving a loss by fire, the late Queen Caroline sent him over a bountiful present out of her own Privy Purse. Upon the late Sir William Gooch's being recalled, who had been Governor of Virginia, he became President and Commander in Chief over the Colony, in which station he continued for some time, 'til the King thought proper to appoint him Governor of the Colony, but he dyed in 1750 before his commission got over to him."
That Thomas Lee possessed "strong natural parts" seems well attested by the important positions confided to him during en epoch in which the Colony was strong in men of marked ability. Besides being for many years a member of the House of Burgesses, a member of the Council and later its president, he became after the death of John Robinson, on the 5th of September, 1749, the acting Governor of the Colony, and held that position until his death. He served also upon various commissions for arranging boundaries, for making treaties with the Indians, and held other similar positons of trust and responsibility.
In May, 1744, Thomas Lee and William Beverley were appointed by the Governor his commissioners to treat with the Iroquois Indians for the settlement of lands west of the Alleghany Mountains.
Though Thomas Lee may have been a person of some influence in his day, he is known rather for his many distinguished sons than for his own individual merit. For it has seldom fallen to the lot of any man to rear six sons who took an active and patriotic part in the service of their country, at least four of whom were distinguished for their unselfish patriotism during the Revolutionary struggle.
Thomas Lee was married, in May, 1722, to Hannah, second daughter of Colonel Philip Ludwell, of Greenspring, James City county, an associate of the Council. She was born at "Rich Neck," in Bruton parish, James City county, the 5th of December, 1701; died at Stratford, 25th of January, 1749, and was buried in the old family burying-ground, called the "Burnt House Fields," at Mt. Pleasant. Her tombstone is now to be seen at Stratford, whither it was removed for preservation, probably by General Henry Lee, who built the new vault at that place.
Where Thomas Lee lived during the first years of his married life is a matter of some doubt. It seems most probable that his first home was at "Mt. Pleasant," and that the loss by fire, of which his son William wrote, was the destruction of the mansion. It is certain that the house at "Mt. Pleasant" was burned early in the last century, but there is no evidence of a fire ever having occurred at stratford. If Queen Caroline gave Thomas Lee a "bountiful present out of her own privy purse," while she was Queen, she must have given it between 1727 and 1737, as she became a Queen in the former year and died in the latter. As Princess of Wales, she would hardly have possessed sufficient means to make a large present. It seems, therefore, highly probable that the Stratford house was erected about 1725-30, hardly later, as it is said that all of Thomas Lee's sons were born in that mansion.
An old mansion has been declared to be a history in itself; its rooms being the chapters; its stories, volumes; its furniture, illustrations, and its inmates the characters. Such a mansion is certainly an illustration of the customs, habits, and mode of life of the period in which it was built and inhabited. And this thought seems to be applicable to Stratford for many reasons. Since it was erected upon the banks of the historic Potomac, American history has been made, and some prominent actors in that history were born under its roof. At the time of its building, the American Colonies were few in number, and weak in strength, hardly able to defend their homes from the marauding Indian. Spotswood and his daring followers had only recently crossed "the Great Mountains," and looked upon the beautiful valley of Virginia. The imagination of to-day can hardly realize venture, and the suggestion of such an idea seems a joke. "Early in his administration," writes Howe, "Spotswood, at the head of a troop of horse, effected a passage over the Blue Ridge, which had previously been considered an impenetrable barrier to the ambition of the whites, and discovered the beautiful valley which lies beyond. In commemoration of the event, he received from the king the honor of knighthood, and was presented with a miniature golden horse-shoe, on which was inscribed the motto, Sic jurat transcendere montes -- Thus he swears to cross the mountains." Since that time a new nation has been born and grown to manhood; from infantile dimension, a narrow strip of inhabited land, hugging the Atlantic as if afraid to loosen its hold on the mother country, its habitation have extednded from ocean to ocean, from the great lakes to the gulf. The war of the Revolution, whith its heroes and patriots, has come and gone. All these changes has Stratford witnessed, yet it remains to-day solid and strong, a monument of the past age in which it was erected, and had it no other claim to distinction, it might surely rank as one of America's historic mansions. But it possesses much greater claims that mere age; as the birthplace of two signers of the Declaration of Independence, and of two others who represented their country at the courts of Europe, during the earlier years of the struggle, it is hallowed by memories which no other mansion in America can share. There, too, on the 19th of Janurary, 1807, was born Robert Edward Lee, an event well worthy of being the last act in the great drama, of which stratford has been the stage.
Stratford house, with its solid walls and massive, rough-hewn timbers, seems rather to represent strength and solidity than elegance or comfort. Its large rooms, with numerous doors and windows, heated only by the large open fireplaces, would to-day scarcely be considered habitable. Nor would the modern housewife care to have her kitchen placed out in the yard some fifty or sixty feet from her dining room. The house was built in the shape of the letter H, the cross line being a large hall room of some twenty-five by thirty feet, serving as the connecting link between the two wings; these wings are about thirty feet wide by sixty deep. The house contains some eighteen large rooms, exclusive of the hall. The ceiling is very high, dome shaped, the walls are panelled in oak, with book cases set in them; back and front are doors, leading into the garden, flanked on either side by windows, as shown in the illustration. On the other two sides of this hall, between the book cases, are two doors, opening into the wings. Outside, at the four corners of the house, are four out-houses, used as storehouses, office, kitchen, and such like purposes. At the corner of the house was the kitchen, with its immense fireplace, which by actual measurement was found to be twelve feet wide, six high, and five deep, evidently capable of roasting a fair-sized ox. Lying on the grass, there is seen a large, old fashioned shell or cannon ball, which tradition says was once fired at the house by the English warship. In recent years it has served the more useful purpose of a hitching block for horses.
The portions of the stable yet remaining show it to have been very large; the kitchen garden was surronded by the usual brick wall, much remaining at the present time. At the foot of the kitchen garden are the remains of the large brick burial vault, of which Bishop Meade wrote; "I have been assured by Mrs. Eliza Turner, who was there at the time, that it was built by General Henry Lee. The cemetery (vault) is much larger than any other in the Northern Neck, consisting of several apartments or alcoves for different branches of the family. Instead of an arch over them there is a brick house, perhaps twenty feet square, covered in. A floor covers the cemetery. In the center is a trap door, through which you descend by a ladder to the apartments below." This brick house having fallen into ruin, a late proprietor of Stratford had it torn down and the bricks heaped up into a mound, which, covered with earth and surmounted by the tombstone of Thomas Lee, would serve as a fitting mark for the unknown dead reposing underneath.
There has been some uncertainty as to the burial place of both Thomas Lee and his son, Richard Henry; the former has always been thought to have been buried at Old Pope's Creek church, and the latter at Chantilly. But an examination of their wills and other data proves most conclusively that both of them were buried in "the Old Burnt House Fields," at "Mt. Pleasant." It requires no proof to show that Richard Lee and Laetitia Corbin, his wife, were buried at this place, as their tombstone is still to be seen there. Thomas Lee's wife died about a year before her husband, and of course had been duly buried; in his will he desired to be "buried between my Late Dearest wife and my Honoured Mother, and that the bricks on the side next my wife may be moved and my coffin placed as near hers as it possible, without moving or disturbing the remains of my Mother." This request proves his wife had been buried very near the grave of his mother. There can be no doubt that Thomas Lee was buried, as he desired, beside his wife, for one slab covered the two graves.
No one can well doubt that the "family burying place" was in the old Burnt House Fields, at "Mt. Pleasant." This was the "one acre where my Hon'd Father is Buryed" that Thomas Lee, in his will, desired should not "be disposed of upon any pretense whatsoever." It was the "family burying place at the burnt House, as it is called," where Richard Henry Lee desired to be buried.
Thomas and Hannah (Ludwell) Lee had the following issue; names and dates were copied from the family Bible of Richard Henry Lee, who stated he had copied from that of his father at Stratford:
i, Richard, born 17 June, 1723; died unmarried, before his father.
ii, Philip Ludwell
iii, Hannah, born 6 February, 1728; married Gawin Corbin (who died prior to 1760) and left a daughter, Martha, who married George Richard Turberville. Philip Ludwell Lee, writing to his brother William, under date of 31 May, 1769, said; "Tomorrow Patty Corbin and George Turnberville are to be married." They had two sons: Gawin Corbin and Richard Lee; the latter married his cousin, Henrietta, daughter of Richard Henry Lee, and left issue
iv, John, born 28 March, 1729, and died the same day.
v, Lucy, born 26 September, 1750, and died unmarried.
vi, Thomas Ludwell
vii, Richard Henry
viii, Francis Lightfoot
ix, Alice, born the 4th of June, 1736, at Stratford; died at Philadelphia, on the 25th of March, 1817; married at London, in 1760, Dr. William Shippen, Jr., and had several children, only two of whom lived to marry. They were: I. Anne Hume, born in 1763; died at Philadelphia, the 23rd of August, 1841, 78 years; she married, on the 11th of March, 1781, Col. Henry Beekman Livingston, son of Robert R. Livingston, Sr., of Clermont, NY; they had a daughter, Margaret Beekman, who died unmarried. 2. Thomas Lee Shippen, born in 1765; died near Charleston, S.C., on the 4th of February, 1798; he married, at "Nesting," VA, on the 10th of March, 1791, Mrs. Elizabeth (Farley) Bennister, the widow of John Bannister, Jr., of Virginia.
x, William
xi, Arthur

It is not possible for Lucy to have been born Sept. 26, 1750 as they state in the Family Bible because her mother died January 25, 1748/49.

[http://www.octhouse.com/leereport.html]

• Biography. Thomas Lee of Stratford, 1690-1750:
Founder of a Virginia Dynasty
Jeanne A. Calhoun, Research Scholar
Robert E. Lee Memorial Association
August 1989
Thomas Lee was born in 1690 at his father's plantation on the Machodoc River in Westmoreland County, Virginia. The fourth surviving son of Richard and Laetitia Lee, Thomas was a member of one of the colony's most prominent families.1 As a younger son, his inheritance would be small. A wealth of intelligence, determination, and influential connections, however, resulted in his becoming one of the most powerful men in early eighteenth century Virginia.
Around 1700, Thomas Lee became a student at the newly formed College of William and Mary, where he received the grammar school education expected of a gentleman's son - writing, arithmetic, and the classical languages. 2 This was the extent of his formal education. Equipped with the basic skills needed to manage a plantation, he returned to his home in Westmoreland for tutelage in their practical application.
During this time, Thomas Lee discovered the complexities involved in managing a tobacco plantation. He was also instructed in the duties of the Naval Officer of the Potomac River, a position which he assumed on the resignation of his father in 1710.3
Richard Lee, Thomas' eldest brother, sailed for England to enter a partnership with their maternal uncle Thomas Corbin, who was a well established Virginia merchant in London. 4 Thomas Lee, left at home, also became a merchant, probably working with his relatives in commissioning sales of tobacco and arranging purchases of goods for his neighbors. He must have impressed his uncle for, in 1711, Corbin was influential in securing a prized position for his twenty-one year old nephew, that of Virginia agent for the Northern Neck Proprietary. Although his uncle Edmund Jenings was the titular head of the agency, and assumed that power on his return to the colony in 1715, the office remained at the Lee family plantation under Thomas' supervision.5
The unsatisfactory management of the agency by Edmund Jennings Lee resulted in its reversion to Robert "King" Carter in 1720. Thomas Lee had learned a great deal, however, during his involvement with this vast property of the Fairfax family. His appetite for land was whetted by the acquisition of some 16,000 acres, much of it highly desirable tracts along the Potomac River. 6 Thomas also began gaining his lifelong reputation for acumen in both his business and political dealings. A somewhat disgruntled contemporary later described him as:
a hautily overbearing Virginian, as full of Cavil and Chicanery as an Attorney .... I am persuaded that if there be any room left for dispute he will not fail to lay hold on it, being a Man of understanding ....7
As Thomas Lee became increasingly well established, he began to turn his thoughts towards marriage. Marriage among the upper class in eighteenth century Virginia was not solely a personal matter between a man and a woman, but an alliance of two families. It was an excellent, and widely practiced, means of increasing one's fortune and position in society. Thomas, himself the product of one such union, was well aware of the potential benefits of a "good" marriage. A nephew, echoing his advice, wrote in 1758:
Our Late Hon[ora]ble & worthy Unkle Presid[ent] Lee said that the first fall & ruin of familys and estates was mostly Occasioned by Imprudent Matchs to Imbeggar familys and estates & to beget a race of beggars.8
Around 1716, twenty-six year old Thomas Lee became betrothed to a very wealthy young lady, Jenny Willson. His father had died two years before, leaving the plantation at Machodoc to his eldest brother, Richard. Apparently desiring to formalize the lease of the plantation before his marriage, Thomas decided to arrange the matter in person and sailed to England.
Thomas Lee was successful in his dealings with his brother. He, his brother Henry, and Reuben Welch, who was to act as agent for the London Lees, were deeded a ninety-nine-year lease on the Machodoc property. The agreement stipulated that, at the death of Richard Lee's wife, the estate was to be for the use of Thomas and Henry Lee for five hundred years, at the conclusion of which the property was to descend to the male heirs of George Lee, eldest son of their brother Richard. 9Thomas wrote Henry from London:
You need not Trouble y[ou]r Self ab[ou]t moving for where you are yo[u] may live without Interruption & y[ou]r negroes. Our Bro[the]r is well & will doe well, and our Sister is Certainly the best woman in the world, our Cousins are pretty. I have had all the Kindness from Bro[the]r I cou'd de[sire] ...
.
While in London, Thomas also initiated the purchase of The Clifts Plantation, on which he would later build Stratford.10
Unfortunately, during his absence Thomas Lee's fiancee, Jenny, married another suitor. William Byrd, then living in London, learned of the circumstances from a correspondent in Virginia. He recorded in his diary:
As for news James Roscoe has marryd the great fortune Jenny Willson with the comfort [of] L 3500, it was managed very secret. Her mother died of the measles - and then the girl came to her aunt Roscoes mother; Roscoe persuades the girl to choose him her guardian; and then immediately marrys her. Poor Tom Lee will be disappointed who was engaged to her.11
Thomas Lee may have learned caution from his disappointment, for it was not until 1722, at the age of thirty-two, that he married Hannah Harrison Ludwell. 12 Reputed to be strong-willed, mischievous, and beautiful, with bright gold hair and a fair complexion, Hannah brought her husband wealth, position, and a mutual devotion that lasted to the end of their lives. 13 They made their home at the plantation on the Machodoc, from which Henry Lee moved around this time. By 1726, Thomas had acquired his brother's interest in this plantation.
Thomas Lee was extremely busy with both business and public affairs. Although very little is known about his mercantile activities, he apparently remained active in tobacco consignments and shipping. He continued to acquire land, amassing large tracts throughout Virginia. Thomas was also involved in the thriving slave trade from 1728 to 1737, years of heavy importation into the colony.14
As a prominent member of the gentry, Thomas Lee was appointed to the vestry of Cople Parish and made a Justice of the Peace for Westmoreland County.15 He became a member of the House of Burgesses in 1723 and retained his seat until he was appointed to the Council of State of Virginia in 1733.16
Despite his heavy responsibilities, Thomas and his wife Hannah had started a family. Their first child, Richard, who was born in 1723, died at an unknown, although assuredly young, age. He was followed by Philip Ludwell in 1727 and, the following year, Hannah. Mrs. Lee became pregnant again almost immediately, but tragedy unexpectedly struck.
On 29 January 1729, the Lees' home at Machodoc was destroyed by fire. Thomas, his wife, and three children barely escaped the flames; an indentured servant girl was burned to death. The Maryland Gazette reported:
Last Wednesday Night, Col. Thomas Lee's fine House in Virginia was burnt, his Office, barns, and Out-houses: His Plate, Cash (to the Sum of 1000 L) Papers, and every Thing intirely lost ....17
Governor William Gooch of Virginia was convinced that the fire had been set by "a pernicious crew of transported felons," whom Thomas Lee had antagonized in his role as Justice of the Peace. In an indignant letter to the Council of Trade and Plantations in London, the outraged Governor described the catastrophe and requested an appropriation for Thomas Lee:
the dwelling house and outhouses of Mr. Thomas Lee ... in the night time were sett on fire by these villains, and in an instant burnt to the ground ... the gentleman, his wife and three children very providentially getting out at a window, with nothing but their shifts and shirts on their backs, which was all they saved ... and this was done by these rogues because, as a Justice of the Peace, upon complaint made to him, he had granted a warrent for apprehending of some of them. They are not yet discovered: In consideration of this gentleman's misfortune, which he is not well able to bear, and as it arises from the discharge of his duty as a Magistrate, I have been prevailed upon to intercede with your Lordships, that his case may be recommended to H.M., for his royal bounty of two or three hundred pounds towards lessening his loss, which was the more considerable by a very good collection of books.18
Fortunately, the English Commissioners agreed with Governor Gooch and granted Thomas Lee three hundred pounds. 19 Virginia was in the midst of a severe depression, which lasted from 1725 to 1734. 20 Although the sum could not replace their loss, it undoubtedly was of some comfort to the Lees. Thomas and his wife Hannah also suffered a more personal tragedy. As flames threatened her life, the pregnant Mrs. Lee had been thrown from a window to safety. Some two months later, on 28 March 1729, she gave birth to a son, John, who died the same day.
It appears that transported convicts were indeed to blame for the destruction of the Lee family home at Machodoc. In 1730, John Davis and Robert Brooks were indicted for the crime in Richmond County court. Davis and Brooks had been sentenced to transportation in England in 1727 and seem to have sailed together to Virginia in June 1728. 21Mary McCarty, cited as an accomplice, also stood trial. A witness testified:
some Small time before Christmas last she see ten pieces of Gold, one Gold watch and Chain, and one Ring in the hands of John Davis, who is now Servant to Thomas Robinson, Robert Brooks and Mary McCarty, and told her if she would be a good girle she should never want nothing, the said McCarty asked him where he gott them, he answered at Col. Lee's, and then asked him how he got them there, he Answered he did the fact which the Sailors suffered for, and then asked him what the Meaning was of what he said[;] [he] answered Ambrose Howard Beat the Bush and he Kecht the Bird ... he and Robert Brooks and two more Sett the house a fire, he said he went into the Cherry tree Room, and found Plate and went into Another Room and See a Silver Tankard Upon a Shelfe over a fire place and took it up and Drank out of it, and it vext him because he forgot to hand it out. That he threw out of the window one bed and a pair of sheets and that he see a Molatto woman in the Kitchen cleaning Candlesticks and See her come out and goe up a pair of stairs by the Kitchen[;] when he was talking about the Cherry tree Room, he was Asked if Cherrys grew in it, Robert Brooks answered noe, but when he workt at Captain Lee's he was drinking Syder with the Servants and they told him there was Such a Room where the plates lay .... Then this deponant, Mary McCarty, Robert Brooks and John Davis went to Patrick Spence's and the said David Showed them the Molatto woman that he See at Col. Lee's House, That she and Mary McCarty went to Mr. Barnes's Landing and hid in the Sand the said ten pieces of Gold, Gold Watch and Ring which held Seven Stones And about two or three Months After that, the said Mary McCarty went and fetcht them and carryed them to William Moseley's and hid them in a hallow tree Between two Goards, and After that the said McCarty told her at Mr. Minors Spring that if she would lett them alone till she was free, she would goe Away with her whereupon this deponant told her she would tell on it, Upon which the said McCarty reply'd if she did she would hang her if she had Fifty Necks.
Brooks, Davis, and McCarty were sent to Williamsburg for trial by the General Court, where the most serious offenses were judged. 22 Although records of the trial have been destroyed, it is probable that the two men were sentenced to death for arson and robbery.
Thomas Lee probably began building a new house on the plantation at Machodoc as soon as weather permitted. In March 1729 he requested permission:
to Turn the road Leading from the Cross-roads at ye white oak down to his plantation, he designing to build a Dwelling house on the Top of the hill near where the road now passes.23
Thomas and his family probably lived with his brother Henry at Lee Hall until their new home was completed.
In 1733, forty-three year old Thomas Lee was appointed to the Council of State of Virginia. The appointment for life to the twelve member Council was a great honor. Character, ability, wealth, and social station were characteristics demanded in a member of the Council. Governor Gooch, who recommended Thomas Lee for the position, described him as, "a Gentleman of good Parts, of singular Probity and Character ... of good Interest & Esteem in his neighborhood."24
The Councillors had many responsibilities. They served as an advisory board to the governor, judges in the General Court of the colony, and composed the upper house of the Assembly. Their various duties required that they spend approximately a third of the year attending to public affairs in the capital.25
The Councillors were, however, handsomely rewarded for their services. They and their families monopolized the important government posts in the colony. The Councillors received a considerable income from the interest on the public funds which they handled for the colony. They were in control of Virginia's land policy, which enabled them to profitably engage in land speculation. Each member of the Council also served as a colonel of the militia, a military rank second only to that of the governor.
Thomas Lee's frequent trips to Williamsburg and many young children created heavy responsibilities for his wife. It appears that they maintained separate households - one in Westmoreland County and another in Williamsburg. The direction for a 1734 bill of exchange has, written separately, the names Hannah Lee and Thomas Lee. 26 This is unusual for the eighteenth century and indicates that she handled at least local financial matters during her husband's many absences.
Thomas Lee was serious about his new obligations and reluctant to miss meetings of the Council. He seems, however, to have considered his family equally important. Thomas apparently travelled from the capital during recesses to be with his wife and their young family. Throughout the 1730s and 1740, he also appears to have been at Hannah's side during the births of their children. The arrivals of Francis Lightfoot (1734), Alice (1736), William (1739), and Arthur (1740) all called him from public business in Williamsburg. 27 Thomas Lee's absences at the Council during these times illustrate not only a sincere love for his family but also the extent of the journey which he undertook. It was approximately eighty miles from the Westmoreland County courthouse to Williamsburg and the round trip usually lasted from eight to twelve days. 28
In the 1730s, Thomas Lee began the construction of a magnificent new mansion for his family. His decision to build was undoubtedly influenced by a number of factors. In a society marked by conspicuous displays of wealth, architecture was one of the more obvious confirmations of status. Thomas' appointment to the Council in 1733 coincided with the end of a severe depression, which had plagued Virginia's planters for almost a decade. His enhanced power and influence virtually demanded an imposing setting which would inspire his equals with respect, and his social inferiors with awe. The house which he had built on the plantation at Machodoc in 1729 was apparently intended as a temporary structure. Certainly, Thomas did not consider it an appropriate monument to his triumph.
Around 1737, Thomas Lee's nephew George Lee, the son of his eldest brother, Richard, emigrated to Virginia from England. In his early twenties, George probably became a guest of his uncle, who was living on the family plantation leased from George's father. George Lee was married in 1738. Following Thomas Lee's move to Stratford, he and his wife assumed possession of the house and later named the plantation Mount Pleasant. They apparently also found the existing structure inadequate and built a new dwelling on the property. In the inventory of George Lee's estate, there is a reference to "the old house" as well as Mount Pleasant. 29 It is possible that the older structure was the one built by Thomas Lee in 1729.
Despite his departure from the plantation at Machodoc, Thomas Lee continued to be identified with the Machodoc property. He remained a member of the Cople Parish Vestry until his death, although Stratford was located in Washington Parish. In 1744, one of the boundaries cited during processioning in the Machodoc area was "at a Red Oak opposite ag[ains]t Colo[nel] Thomas Lee's old landing ...." 30He also apparently retained control of the farming aspects of the plantation at Machodoc, which he still held under a five- hundred-year lease from his brother. In 1746, he requested permission of the county court to:
turn the Road that now leads through the plantation where he formerly lived And for that purpose has had another cleared to come Out by the foot bridge to the Old Road & from thence to the Main Road that Leads to Yocomo or Nomini Church ....31
Thomas Lee decided upon The Clifts Plantation as the site of his new home. He may have selected this location as early as 1716, when he was wooing Jenny Willson and purchased the property. It is probable that definite plans for construction were drawn up soon after his appointment to the Council in 1733. Although the property had been surveyed in 1721, this was only formally recorded in 1734, indicating a lack of serious intentions until that time. 32 Throughout the 1730s, he purchased several other tracts of land in the vicinity.
The Clifts Plantation was a logical location for Thomas Lee's new home. It is understandable that he would have preferred to remain in Westmoreland County, where he had lived since birth. With his appointment to the Council, he resigned his profitable position as Naval Officer, as it was preferred that the same individual not hold both posts. This removed one obstacle to leaving the immediate Machodoc area. Possession of the plantation at Machodoc would eventually revert to the heirs of his nephew George. Thomas Lee, building for future generations, would have undoubtedly preferred land which could remain in the ownership of his direct descendants and, indeed, attempted to ensure this through the use of entail. Majestic by nature, The Clifts also boasted a landing on the Potomac River, roads, and probably quarters in which supervisors and laborers could be lodged while construction was underway. Thomas Lee, casting about for a convenient and appropriate setting for his home, must have readily recognized the potential of The Clifts Plantation.
Thomas and, according to family tradition, the strong-willed Hannah were both undoubtedly involved in planning their new house. A nineteenth century descendant wrote that the couple's eldest son, Philip Ludwell, used to complain of the design of Stratford. Showing his visitors a picture of the house his father had intended to build, he would exclaim:
See what it is to be ruled by a woman. I should have been now living in a house like this ... had not my father been persuaded by his wife to put up this very inferior dwelling, now over my head.33
Whatever the extent of the involvement of Thomas and Hannah in determining the style and conveniences of the house, the actual construction would have been under the supervision of a master builder.
Although a specific architect or builder and date of construction for Stratford have yet to be definitively established, recent research has revealed a connection between Thomas Lee and master builder William Walker of Stafford County. Little is known about Walker's background. His first documented appearance in the Northern Neck is in 1728, when he was involved with the Carter family. 34In 1731, Walker married Elizabeth Netherton, the daughter of a Westmoreland County gentleman and probably a neighbor of Thomas Lee.35 The marriage of William Walker into the local gentry may have been the beginning of their friendship.
William Walker built a number of private and public buildings throughout Virginia, including Cleve, the plantation home of Charles Carter, and the brick mansion Marlborough for John Mercer. 36 Both of these men were acquaintances of Thomas Lee. In 1739, Walker advertised for the capture of two indentured servants, both of whom were carpenters, who had run away from him in Westmoreland County. They escaped in a small boat belonging to Thomas Lee.37
Later, Thomas Lee was almost certainly influential in engaging William Walker to repair the Capitol in Williamsburg. 38 When he wrote in 1749, "The Governor's House, gardens, etc., has been Viewed and Examined by our most Skillful Architect," he may have been referring to Walker. 39 Unfortunately, the builder died in February 1750 before he could undertake the work in Williamsburg. In his will, he named his "worthy Friends" Thomas and Philip Ludwell Lee as two of his executors. 40
Dendrochronology studies indicate that construction on the ceiling and roof of the Great House at Stratford was begun in 1738 with timber cut the previous year and left to season. The shell of the house was probably completed around 1740. The construction of the ceiling and roof of the dependency apparently used by the Lees as a plantation kitchen was not begun until 1739, suggesting that they were under no pressure to leave their residence on the plantation at Machodoc. 41
The earliest written reference which has been discovered, as of this point, to Thomas Lee of Stratford is dated February 1742. 42 As it is unlikely that the Lees would have moved during the snow and ice of a Virginia winter, they were probably in residence by, at latest, the fall of 1741.
By the early 1740s, Thomas and Hannah Lee were the parents of eight children - Philip Ludwell (b.1727), Hannah (b.1728), Thomas Ludwell (b.1730), Richard Henry (b.1732), Francis Lightfoot (b.1734), Alice (b.1736), William (b.1739), and Arthur (b.1740). Although Philip Ludwell was probably still at Eton and Thomas Ludwell may have been a student at the same or a similar institution, the rest of the children must have kept their parents busy. One of the family anecdotes from this period gives an indication of the mischief high-spirited boys could scarcely resist:
There were four sophas in the saloon, besides a spacious portico into which it opened on the North, the river-front of the house, with an area as large as the saloon's. Lying on one of these sophas, was Col. Tom, the father of Col. Phil[;], Richard Henry, Francis Lightfoot ... Mr Thomas Williams & Arthur Lee ... then schoolboys at Stratford, & as such, by day consigned to the school-room in the basement story of that long house - Yes! lying on one of these was their father, when the boys aforesaid, came into the said saloon as the gathering place, from which to go to dinner, when their father seemed to be dozing. And there was the social sun of the hour & the nutmeg of delight, shining on its appointed table, with glasses beside it .... The thirsty boys thought they would not much wander from their appointed way, should they touch their lips as the[y] went; but so lingered over their ... prohibited indulgence, that their father, who was not indeed asleep - startled them, by half whispering - "Make haste boys, your mother will soon be here."43
Stratford continued to develop throughout the 1740s. The southwest dependency was built around 1742. 44 In 1743, Thomas Lee purchased the land for the mill on the waterfront.45 The plantation was staffed by a mixture of free, indentured, and slave labor. Skilled servants included male cooks, bricklayers, and a gardener. 46 One of the indentured servants, a transported convict, had been a footman in London; he may have assumed this role at Stratford, at least for formal occasions.47
Wealthy and powerful, Thomas Lee was an object of both respect and dread to his less prosperous neighbors. In 1745, Edmund Partington was accused of bartering with Thomas' servants for two kersey jackets, one pair of breeches, some white and scotch plaid, and leather. As these goods belonged to Thomas Lee, this was considered stealing and Partington was summoned to court. He explained:
That he was coming from the Mill and called at ... Lee's Taylors houses which Taylors told him that they had rec[eive]d there Cloathes & that the said Partington might buy them and cloath his Servant therewith[,] to which the said Partington replyed he was afraid to do fearing Colo Lee ... Should take it Amiss[.] Howsoever he ... did agree to give them three Yards and a half of Linnen and a quarter of a Yard of Cambrix for them. And upon his the said Partingtons understanding that Colo Lee ... had information of Partingtons having the things .... He immediately went home and put the said things in a Bag and Carried them out & hid them in a hollow tree.48
The 1740s were a busy time politically for Thomas Lee. In 1743, he and William Beverley were appointed commissioners to negotiate with the Six Nations of the Iroquois at the Lancaster Conference in Pennsylvania. 49 William Black, secretary to the mission, recorded in his diary:
This morning at 9 of the Clock, in Company with the Honble Commissioners, and the Gentlemen of their Levees, Colonels John Tayloe Junr. and Presley Thornton, Warner Lewis, Philip Ludwell Lee, James Littlepage and Robert Brooke Esquires, I Embark'd on Board the Margaret Yacht lying off Stratford on Potomac, and about 10 minutes after was under Sail, with a small Breeze of Wind at S.W. our back Ensign and Pennon flying; after the Vessel had got way, with the Trumpet we hail'd the Company (who came to the Water side to see us on Board) with Fare-you-well, who returned the Compliment, wishing us a Good Voyage and Safe Return, for which, on the part of the Company, I gave them Thanks with the Discharge of our Blunderbuss.50
In 1747, Thomas Lee was one of the founders of the Ohio Company, a land speculation venture. 51 His experience as Virginia agent for the Northern Neck Proprietary had made him familiar with the large tracts of undeveloped land in the colony and his own profitable acquisitions undoubtedly increased the appeal of the project. As a Councillor, he was in a position to influence the land policy of the colony and, with his assistance, the Ohio Company was unlikely to fail.
Two years later, in the fall of 1749, Governor William Gooch of Virginia was recalled to England. As senior member of the Council, Thomas Lee was named President of the Council and acting Governor of Virginia. 52
Hannah Ludwell Lee died on 25 January 1750. She was buried in the family graveyard on the land known since the destruction of the Lee home at Machodoc as "Burnt House Field." About a month after her death, a grief-stricken Thomas composed his will, leaving instructions that he:
be buried between my Late Dearest wife and my honoured Mother and that the Bricks on the side next my wife, may be moved, and my Coffin Placed as near hers as is Possible, without moving it or disturbing the remains of my Mother.
Thomas Lee directed that the remainder of his 500-year lease on the plantation at Machodoc be sold to his nephew George Lee, who was living on the property. He reserved from the sale the one acre family burial plot.
In November 1750, Thomas Lee died at the age of sixty. Thomas and Hannah's eldest son, Philip Ludwell, inherited the bulk of the estate.53 Following the news of his father's death, Philip Ludwell sailed home from London and became the second Lee master of Stratford.


1. Edmund Jennings Lee, Lee of Virginia 1642-1892, (1895; reprinted., Baltimore, 1983). This is the source of all of the Lee family genealogical information included in this article.
Return to text.
2. Thomas Lee was a student at the College of William and Mary before 1725. A Catalogue of the College of William and Mary in Virginia From its Foundation to the Present Time (Williamsburg, 1859).
Return to text.
3. Henry Read McIlwaine, ed., Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia (9 vols. Richmond, 1908-15),Ill, 263.
Return to text.
4. Lee, Lee of Virginia, P.91.
Return to text.
5. Fairfax Harrison, Virginia Land Grants: A Study of Conveyancing in Relation to Colonial Politics (1925; reprinted., New York, 1979), pp.98-100.
Return to text.
6. Clifford Dowdey, The Virginia Dynasties: The Emergence of "King" Carter and the Golden Age (Boston, 1969), pp.302-303;312.
Return to text.
7. [ ] Hamilton to [ ] Penn, 10 July 1750, Thomas Lee Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Return to text.
8. Henry Lee to Richard Lee, 22 Feb. 1758, Box 1, Custis-Lee Papers, Library of Congress.
Return to text.
9. Westmoreland County Deeds and Wills Book 6, p. 19 1, Westmoreland County Courthouse, Montross.
Return to text.
10. Thomas Lee to Henry Lee, 16 Nov. 1716, Box 1, Custis-Lee Papers.
Return to text.
11. John Custis to William Byrd 11, 30 March 1717, in Marion Tinling, ed., The Correspondence of the Three William Byrds of Westover. Virginia 1684-1776, 1 (Charlottesville, 1977), pp.297298.
Return to text.
12. Ethel Armes, Stratford Hall: The Great House of the Lees, (Richmond, 1936), p.39.
Return to text.
13.Charles Carter Lee Papers, Box 9, Alderman Library, University of Virginia.
Return to text.
14. Jeanne A.Calhoun, "Thomas Lee 1690-1750: A Preliminary Report," (prepared for the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association, 1988), pp. 10-14.
Return to text.
15. Helen Gibson Crabbe Tayloe, "A History of Cople and Washington Parishes," III (photocopy on file, Jessie Ball duPont Memorial Library, n.d.), p. 149. Armes, Stratford Hall, p.25.
Return to text.
16. Wilmer L. Hall, ed., Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia, V (945; reprint, Richmond, 1967), p.xii; Benjamin J. Hillman, ed., Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia, VI (1966, Richmond), p.32.
Return to text.
17. Maryland Gazette, 25 March - 1 April 1729.
Return to text.
18. Cecil Headlam, ed., Calendar of State Papers Colonial Series America and West Indies 17281729 (London, 1937), p.333.
Return to text.
19. Thomas Lee Folder, Box 1, Ethel Armes Collection of Lee Family Papers, Library of Congress.
Return to text.
20. Lewis Cecil Gray, History of Agriculture in the Southern United States to 1860, 1 (New York, 1941), p.269.
Return to text.
21. Index to Old Bailey Sessions Records: Middlesex, Mcrofilm, GD 2489, Greater London Record Office- Peter Wilson Coldham ed., English Convicts in Colonial America, Middlesex: 1 17-1775, 1 (New Orleans, 1974), pp.35;73.
Return to text.
22. Peter Charles Hoffer and William B. Scott, Criminal Proceedings in Colonial Virginia , (Athens, 1984), pp. 129-13 1.
Return to text.
23. Westmoreland County Court Orders, 1721-173 1, p.255, Westmoreland County Courthouse.
Return to text.
24. William Gooch to Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, 5 Oct. 1732, Gooch Papers, vol. 2, Virginia Historical Society.
Return to text.
25. Ibid., 24 May 1748, vol. 3.
Return to text.
26. Bill of Exchange, 16 Sept. 1734, Papers on the Fairfax Estate in Va., Va. Colonial Records Project, microfilm #282, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Return to text.
27. Henry Read McIlwaine, ed., Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia, IV (Richmond, 1930)- Wilmer L. Hall, ed., Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia, V (Richmond, 1967).
Return to text.
28. 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.
Return to text.
29. Westmoreland County Records, IV, p. 160A, Westmoreland County Courthouse.
Return to text.
30. Westmoreland County Court Orders, 1743-1747, p.13, Westmoreland County Courthouse.
Return to text.
31. Ibid., p. 121.
Return to text.
32. Westmoreland County Deeds and Wills, Book 8, number 2, pp.234-236, Westmoreland County Courthouse.
Return to text.
33. Charles Carter Lee Papers, Box 9.
Return to text.
34. Carl Lounsbury, Research Architect, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, personal communication, 25 Aug. 1987. Mr. Lounsbury was the first to recognize the possible architectural link between William Walker and Stratford. He has very generously shared his own research on Walker.
Return to text.
35. George Harrison Sanford King, The Register of Saint Paul's Parish 1715-1798 Stafford County Virginia 1715-1776 King George County, Virginia 1777-1793 (Easley, 1960), pp.x-xi.
Return to text.
36. Ralph Emmett Fall, The Diary of Robert Rose: A View of Virginia by a Scottish Colonial Parson 1746-1751 (Verona, 1977), p. 136.
Return to text.
37. The Virginia Gazette, 29 June-6 July 1739.
Return to text.
38. Fall, The Diary of Robert Rose, p. 136.
Return to text.
39. Thomas Lee to Lords Commissioners, 7 Nov. 1749, Gooch Papers, vol. 3.
Return to text.
40. Stafford County Deeds and Wills, Book 0, p. 84, Stafford County Courthouse, Stafford.
Return to text.
41. Herman J. Heikkenen, "Final Report: The Last Year of Tree Growth for Selected Timbers Within the Buildings of Stratford Hall Plantation as Derived by the Key-Year Dendrochronology Technique" (Blacksburg, 1987), p. 1.
Return to text.
42. Thomas Lee to [Daniel Dulaney?], 15 Feb. 1742, Dulaney Papers, Maryland Historical Society.
Return to text.
43. Charles Carter Lee Papers, Box 9.
Return to text.
44. Heikkenen, "Final Report," p.i.
Return to text.
45. Westmoreland County Deeds and Wills, Book 9, pp.293-294, Westmoreland County Courthouse.
Return to text.
46. Jack and Marion Kaniinkow, eds., A List of Emigrants to America 1718-1759 (Baltimore, 1964), p. 163; Calhoun, "Thomas Lee," p. 16.
Return to text.
47. 14 Oct. 1723, Old Bailey Sessions Records: London, Guildhall Library, London.
Return to text.
48. Westmoreland County Court Orders, 1743 -1747, pp. I 16A- 1 17, Westmoreland County Courthouse.
Return to text.
49. Hall, Executive Journals, V, p. 139.
Return to text.
50. Diary of William Black, 17 May 1744, Virginia Historical Society.
Return to text.
51. Clifford Dowdey, The Golden Age: A Climate for Greatness, Virginia 173 7-1775 (Boston, 1970), p.67.
Return to text.
52. Hall, Executive Journals, V, pp.299-300. 53.Lee, Lee of Virginia pp. 121-123.
Return to text.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank J. Michael Hurley for his unfailing moral support, assistance, and editorial advice. Mrs. Richard P. Gravely graciously permitted the author to use the Charles Carter Lee Papers. The first year of research for this article was funded by the Councillors of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association. None of this would have been possible without the support of the Directors of the Association, who have steadfastly proven their support of research and the pursuit of historical accuracy.



From:
Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Magazine, December 1991, vol. XLI, no. 1.

[http://www.stratfordhall.org/thomas.html]

• Biography. Thomas Lee continued also the family tradition of advantageous marriage. His bride was Hannah Ludwell, daughter of wealthy Philip Ludwell, of the James River plantation Green Spring. This ancient estate had been established by the early governor, Sir William Berkeley. The Lees as well as the Ludwells had supported Berkeley against Nathaniel Bacon's rebels in 1676.

Eleven children were born to Thomas and Hannah Ludwell Lee. Of the eleven, eight survived to adulthood. In order of birth, they were Philip Ludwell, Hannah, Thomas Ludwell, Richard Henry, Francis Lightfoot, Alice, William and Arthur. William's place in this order and his relationship to his oldest brother were to shape his altitudes and profoundly affect his career.

Both Thomas and Hannah died within a twelvemonth when William was turning eleven years old. The younger children were left in charge of the oldest brother, whom they called, with more respect perhaps than affection, "Colonel Phil." Philip Ludwell after his father's death was unassailably the master of Stratford Hall, as head of the family, principal executor and chief legatee of his father's vast estate.

Under the will, Thomas Ludwell, Richard Henry and Francis Lightfoot were bequeathed some land or given right of succession to some of the holdings, but William and Arthur were not provided for in this manner. Each of the two youngest sons was to receive £1,000 sterling upon reaching the age of twenty-one. Each was also to receive £200 toward a homestead plus certain fees accruing from the customs sinecure long held by the Lee family for certain Potomac River landings. William Lee spent embittered years trying to collect his cash inheritance from the estate, whose income was so closely held by his eldest brother.

Thomas Lee's will provided that the younger sons were to be "maintained and Educated out of my Estate." This left Philip Ludwell in charge of their education. He and Thomas Ludwell had received legal educations at the Inns of Court in London. Richard Henry had completed seven years or schooling at the famous Wakefield academy in Yorkshire. Francis Lightfoot, affectionately called Frank, was being tutored at home by a Scottish clergyman named Craig. Apparently he did not elect to go abroad for higher education.

William and Arthur undoubtedly received their early instruction from the Scotsman. If so, they were endowed with a thorough grounding in the fundamentals or learning. Mr. Craig's forte was science, and Arthur, the most brilliant of the brothers scholastically, showed such promise that he was sent on to Eton, later to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine. Like Frank, William did not scintillate scholastically, but his aptitude for figuring undoubtedly was sharpened by Craig, if indeed this Scottish man of science was his tutor. Besides, there was the great library at Stratford in which William must have read widely, judging from the allusions to Shakespeare and Homer in his correspondence.
[http://www.leearchive.info/shelf/dill-wl/index.html]

• Residence: Stratford Hall Plantation, 1738, Westmoreland County, VA. Estate was known as Machodoc which was set on fire by imigrant felons from England who had been sternly treated by Thomas as a magistrate. Later he built Stratford starting in 1738. It was 4800 acres at Thomas & Hannah's death.

[http://www.octhouse.com/leereport.html]

see also

http://www.stratfordhall.org/

• Residence: Stratford Hall: Westmoreland County, VA. Stratford Hall, the fortress-like brick mansion built by Thomas Lee,
father of William Lee, on the high banks of the Potomac River in
Westmoreland County, Virginia. William Lee was born here. As a young man,
he managed the plantation under the direction of his oldest brother.

• Memorial, 1756, Westmoreland County, VA. From a slab at Stratford, the ancient seat of the Lees.

In memory of the Hon. Thomas Lee, whose body was buried at Pope's Creek Church, five miles above his country-seat, Stratford Hall, in 1756.

[http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/va/westmoreland/cemeteries/tomb0001.txt]

• See also. http://www.octhouse.com/leereport.html

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~eastozarka/lee/leeg04.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Lee_%28Virginia_colonist%29

http://www.stratfordhall.org/history.html?HISTORY

http://www.stratfordhall.org/thomaslee.html?HISTORY

http://www.stratfordhall.org/thomas.html

http://www.leearchive.info/shelf/dill-wl/index.html

Thomas married Hannah LUDWELL, daughter of Philip LUDWELL and Hannah HARRISON, in May 1722. (Hannah LUDWELL was born on 5 Dec 1701 in James City County, VA and died on 25 Jan 1748 in Westmoreland County, VA.)