• General Notes

  4. “President” Thomas Lee b. 1690, Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland Co., VA, d. 14 Nov 1750, Stratford Hall, Westmoreland Co., VA, m. May 1722, Green Spring, Williamsburg, VA, Hannah Harrison Ludwell b. 5 Dec 1701, Rich Neck, Bruton Parish, James City Co., VA, d. 25 Jan 1749, Stratford Hall, Westmoreland Co., VA, (daughter of Col. Philip and Hannah (Harrison) Ludwell, II). Of Thomas’s 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 the 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.” 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 Sep 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 positions of trust and responsibility. Where Thomas 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 that 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 Queen in the former year and died in the latter. It seems, therefore, highly probable that the Stratford House was erected about 1725-30, hardly later, as it is said that all of Thomas’s sons were born in that mansion. 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 today scarcely be considered habitable. The modern housewife would not appreciate the outside kitchen, some fifty or sixty feet from the 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 view given here represents the rear, the small stairway leads up to the rear door of the hall room. The room to the right, as one faces the picture, is the bed room in which tradition states that Richard Henry Lee and his brothers were born; also, Gen. Robert E. Lee. The hall room was, in those days, used as the library and general sitting room, especially in summer, being large, airy, well lighted and ventilated. The ceiling is very high, dome shaped, the walls are paneled in oak, with book cases set in them; back and front are doors, leading into the garden, flanked by windows on either side. 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 an English warship. In recent years is has served as a hitching block for horses. The portions of the stable are very large; the kitchen garden was surrounded by the usual brick wall. 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 centre 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 Lee; 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 be moved and my coffin Placed as near hers as is 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, and had the following inscription : “Here lies Buried the Hon’ble Col. Thomas Lee, Who dyed 14 November, 1750; Aged 60 years; and his beloved wife, Mrs. Hannah Lee. She departed this life 25 January, 1749-50. Their monument is erected in the lower church of Washington Parish, in this County; five miles above their County Seat, Stratford Hall.” The monument is no longer, but a manuscript remains of the inscription, only the family burying place name is torn: “This Monument is erected to the Memory of the Honourable Col. Thomas Lee, Commander-in-chief and President of His Majesties Council for this Colony, descended from the very ancient and Honourable Family of Lees in Shropshire in England, who dyed November 14, 1750, aged 60 years; and of the Hon. Mrs. Hannah Lee, his Wife, by Philip Ludwell Lee, their eldest son, as a just and dutyfull Tribute to so excellant a Father and Mother, Patterns of Conjugal Virtue. They are buryed eighteen miles from this in the family burying place, called Old _______ in Cople Parish, in this County.” 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, 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 Lee’s will was dated 22 Feb 1749, probated in Westmoreland Co., VA 30 Jul 1751.
  

Details of Thomas' family with Hannah Harrison Ludwell