• General Notes

  Rollo, Rou or Rolf was a Norse Chieftain of the Scandinavian Peninsula, from which the Vikings drove their boats over the rough North Sea. (Scandinavia is a name applied in a restricted sense to the Peninsulas of Norway and Sweden). In an historical sense, Scandinavia includes Denmark and Iceland and in a literary sense, besides these, the intellectual productions of the Swedish race in Finland).
  
  In 900,ONE THOUSAND AND FORTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, this Northman went into northern France along the English channel, and took the north-west section—extending from Belgium along the channel to Brittany, and including the Cherbourg Peninsula, extending inland about 100 miles.
  
  In 911 Rollo was granted by King Charles, the Simple, of France, the possession of Rouen, for his Capital, and the adjacent territory which Rollo had already seized. This is the Normandy of today—where our American boys landed on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
  
  From Rollo, baptized under the name of ROBERT and his wife, Grisela, the daughter of King Charles, the Simple—sprang the dukes of Normandy, of whom Richard the 1st, a grandson of Rollo vigorously maintained his authority against his Liege Lords, Louis IV and Lothaire. William, 2nd son of Robert 2nd le Diable, became Duke of Normandy in 1035 and in 1036 – 879 years ago – established a Norman Dynasty on the throne of England.
  
  For a time the English Channel looked as formidable to William of Normandy as it did to "Old Hitler" after the battle of Dunkirk. Finally, William attempted the crossing. For awhile it looked very unpropitious to his superstitious men, for as William landed, he fell.
  
  However the resourceful William grabbed his hands full of England’s soil and turning to his men cried in a loud voice: "Thus O England, do I take seizin’ of thee."
  
  William and his men of Normandy took England had held it as a fief of Normandy. He killed Harold the English King; introduced the French language into the court, gave the Englishmen’s land to the Norman men, and thus we get the story of "Robin Hood."
  
  With William, now called "the Conqueror," came one HUGH DE LEGA AND GILBERT DE VENABLES, relatives, who fought so valiantly with William that they each were given an estate in Essex (Eastern England). The LEE name was spelled Lee, Lea, Leigh, de Lega and de Lee.
  
  In 1183 , 762 years ago , LIONEL DE LEE went into Palestine with Richard the Lionhearted, king of England, with Louis XII, of France,and with Frederick Barbarossa I, of Germany, to take the tomb of Christ from Sladin, the Turk. (With Frederick Barbarossa there was a Heyl (Hoyle) from Wiesbaden—my father’s family)
  
  IN "LEES of Virginia" by Edmund J. Lee (1895) there is the following reference under Leigh of West Hall, of Cheshire, England: "This most ancient family of the name in England traces its pedigree through Hamon de Venables, son of Gilbert de Venables, grandson of Gilbert de Venables of Normandy, who accompanied the Conqueror to England, and was a younger brother of Thibault, Count of Blois, descended from Rollo, the first Duke of Normandy."
  
  LINEAGE OF THE LEE FAMILY
  (Copied from Burke)
  
  "The Lee Family of Stanton, Roden and afterwards of Langley and Coton Hall, Salop, IS stated in Burke’s Baronetcies to be ONE of the oldest in England.
  
  "Eyton treating of Reyner le la Le about 1195 gives also an unbroken descent thro’ the Stantons of Stanton Hineheath from 1086 to 1173-4. The pedigree of 1623 (when Sir Humphrey Lee’s charters were copied by Vincent) begins with HUGO DE LEGA, 1100, whose son,
  
  "Reginald de la Lee is identified with the above. He was Sheriff 1201 and one of the knights as REINER DE LEGA AT THE assizes Oct. 1203. He received a grant of land from William, son of William FitzAlan and according to the pedigree had a son;
  
  "Sir John de la Le, evidence produced by Eyton and Sir William Hardy, late Keeper of the Records in the Duchy of Lancaster, shows that Reyner’s son was really Sir Thomas de Lee, given as his grandson in the pedigree. He married Petronilla, daughter of Sir Thomas Corbet (Sheriff) in time of King Henry 3rd of England—king from 1266-1272. Sir Thomas de la Le had THREE sons:
  
  Sir John de la Lee mentioned above
  
  Reyner or Reginald de la Lee—to whom he gave the V. of Lee Pevenhull 7c,and
  
  Thomas de la Lee, this latter m. Petronilla de Stanton about 14(?) and had a SON:
  
  "Sir John de la Lee of Stanton, Roden and given as his nephew, SIR JOHN DE LA LEE married Matilda de Erdington and had (with a daughter, Matilda) two (2) sons: John de la Lee and Thomas de la Lee.
  
  "(These Lees were from Normandy, and this was the French manner of writing the name.)"
  
  "To THOMAS DE LA LEE he gave land called OKEHURST. (MORE OF THOMAS PRESENTLY). John de la Lee as succeeded by his oldest son, Sir John de Lee, who is shown by Eyton to have been succeeded by HIS son, Sir John de Lee, who was succeeded by HIS son, Sir Robert de Lee of Roden. He married Petronilla, a daughter of Roger Lee of Pimhill, by his wife, Joan, daughter of and heir of Edward Burnell of Aston Burnell, and Langley and was succeeded by HIS son:
  
  "Sir Ralph de Lee of Lee Hall, Langley Aston, Burnell, 1447. He married first Isabella, and second Isabella, a daughter of James Ridley, and died Dec. 14, 1479. Sir Ralph was succeeded by HIS son:
  
  "Sir Richard de Lee of Langley and married Margaret, daughter and heiress of Sir Fulke Sprenchose and had five sons and two daughters. He was succeeded by HIS son:
  
  "Sir Fulke Lee of Langley; married Alice, daughter of Sir Richard Cromwell, and secondly Elizabeth, daughter of John Leighton. He was succeeded by HIS son and heir:
  
  "Sir Thomas Lee of Langley and he married Jane, daughter of Sir Robert Morton and had five sons and seven daughters. He, Sir Richard Lee, died in 1591 and was succeeded by HIS oldest son:
  
  "Sir Richard Lee of Langley, who m. Eleanor, dau. Of Walter Wrottesley and had four sons and six daus. He, Sir Richard Lee, d. in 1591 and was s. by his oldest son:
  
  "Sir Humphrey Lee, J. J. of Langley and was created a Baronet by King James First of England, 1620. He married Margaret, daughter of Reginald Corbet and had one (1) son and four (4) daughters. He died in 1633 and was succeeded by His son:
  
  "Sir Richard Lee, Baronet of Langley, M. P. for Salop. He attended the King at Oxford and suffered much for the Royal Cause. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Edward Allen and died 1660 when the Baronetcy became extinct. (He had no son) and the Estates were divided between his TWO daughters—Rachel who married Ralph Clanton and Mary who married Edward Smythe, afterwards created a Baronet.
  
  "Return, please, to THOMAS DE LEE of Okehurst. Records of the second visitation make him the father of:
  
  "Roger Lee, who had a son;
  
  "Roger Lee who married Margaret, sister and heiress of Thomas Astley of Nordley, whose descent is given by Eyton from the time of King Henry First of England (b. 1068-1135) king from 1100-1135, the youngest and only "ENGLISH-BORN SON OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR—according to tradition, at Selby, Yorkshire. He warred with his brothers and for some time wandered as a landless man. Immediately after the death of his brother, William Rufus, with whom he had been hunting—he rode to Winchester, seized the Royal Treasure, and in the absence of his brother, Robert, then on his way home from Crusading in Palestine, was elected King by the Council, through the influence of the Earl of Warwick, and was crowned at Westminster.
  
  "The first visitation shows that Roger Lee, Margaret’s husband, was of the Second House, and it is probable that he was a son, and not a grandson, to THOMAS LEE OF OKEHURST, who died about 1419 and was succeeded by HIS son:
  
  "Sir John Lee who m. Jocosa (Joyce) Packingon and was s. by HIS son:
  
  "Sir John Lee of Nordley who married Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Thomas Corbine and was succeeded by his son:
  
  "Sir Thomas Lee of Nordley who m. Johanna, a dau. Of Robert Morton of Houghton and was s. by his son:
  
  "Sir Thomas Lee of COTTON HALL who married Katherine, daughter of John Blount of Eye and was succeeded by his son:
  
  "Sir John Lee of King’s Nordley who died 1605 married Jocosa (Joyce) a daughter of John Romney and had issue of EIGHT (8) sons.
  
  1. Thomas Lee, the heir, died 1620 and HIS SON, Launcelot, succeeded him;
  
  2. William Lee, born 1597, came to America, landing in theVa. Plantations in July 24, 1635, bought much land and died 1656, leaving everything to His oldest son by the same name. He came over in ship Assurance de Lo. See the
  
  ‘Original List of Emigrants From England to the Virginia Plantations’ from 1600-1700 by Hotton. Without this book I could not have made the link. William Lee, Gent, was granted 500 acres in Charles City County, on the south side of James River, Feb. 16, 1654. He had obtained much land before that, for he sold some land in 1636. Both he and Richard appear among those having headrights. William died 1656. No other grants were as large as these two.
  
  3. Edward Lee, Clergyman
  
  4. Gilbert Lee
  
  5. Jasper Lee
  
  6. Richard Lee. The genealogy of the family of Lee of Chester, Bucks and Oxon, showing the descent of Robert E. Lee from sir John Lee, knight. Burke says that there is no doubt that this Richard Lee, bearing the arms of this family, is the progenitor of the Robert Edward Lee line who figured in the Confederacy. Richard Lee, Gent, was granted 1,000 acres on the south side of Charles River, in York Co., Va. on August 10, 1642. Richard died in 1664.
  
  7. Fernando Lee
  
  8. Josias
  
  "The members of this Lee Family have served as High Sheriffs of
  
  Shropshire. Richard Lee had the arms of the Shropshire family. There is evidence at Queens College, Oxford, the Herald’s College, and in America. The descent of this Richard Lee II, Secretary of the State of Virginia 1659 was a son of Richard I, from the Shropshire Family, is attested by John Gibbon, Bluemantle, in 1682.
  
  "Our William Lee and his younger brother, Richard were examined by the minister of the Towne of Gravesend as to their conformity in Religion. He and Richard had both taken oaths of allegiance to the crown of England.
  
  "Sir John Lee died in 1605,leaving his beloved kinsman, Sir Humphrey Lee, overseer of his will. Sir John’soldest son, the heir, Thomas Lee of Coton, married Dorothy, daughter of Richard Oteley of Patchford, Shropshire. Issue was as follows: four sons and seven daughters
  
  Thomas Lee died 1620 and was succeeded by HIS oldest surviving son:
  
  "LAUNCELOT LEE of Coton Hall born 1594 and died 1667. Residence: Chantry, Frome, Somerset, England.
  
  The following members of this Family served as High Sheriffs of Shropshire.
  
  1210 - Sir Reiner de Lee
  1387 - Robert de Lee (Atty, in Blakeway’s list)
  1395 - Sir Thomas Lee
  1478 - Ralph Lee
  1479 - Richard Lee
  1639 - Richard Lee
  1639 - Sir Richard Lee  

Details of Hugo's family