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Lee family of VA & London
5. 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 Henry’s 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 Lee’s 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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LEE, Richard Henry, (1732 - 1794)
Senate Years of Service: 1789-1792
Party: Anti-Administration
Library of Congress
LEE, Richard Henry, (brother of Arthur Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee, and great-grandfather of Blair Lee), a Delegate and a Senator from Virginia; born at “Stratford,” in Westmoreland County, Va., January 20, 1732; after a course of private instruction attended Wakefield Academy, England; returned in 1751; justice of the peace for Westmoreland County 1757; member, house of burgesses 1758-1775; Member of the Continental Congress 1774-1779; sponsor of the independence resolution; a signer of the Declaration of Independence; author of the first national Thanksgiving Day proclamation issued by Congress at York, Pa., October 31, 1777; member, State house of delegates 1777, 1780, 1785; served as colonel of the Westmoreland Militia; again a Member of the Continental Congress 1784-1785 and 1787 and served as President of the Congress in 1784; member of the Virginia convention which ratified the Federal Constitution in 1788; elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1789, until his resignation October 8, 1792; served as President pro tempore during the Second Congress; retired from public life; died at his home, “Chantilly,” Westmoreland County, Va., June 19, 1794; interment in the old family burying ground at “Mount Pleasant,” near Hague, Westmoreland County, Va.
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What follows is the text of the document (with signatures) known as Leedstown Resolves, or Westmoreland Resolves, a courageous protest against the Stamp Act,executed on 27 February 1766 by the Westmoreland County, Virginia citizens whose names are listed at the end of the document -- this identical text may be seen on a marble plaque which hangs in the hallway of the Old Circuit Court building in Montross, Virginia:

THE ASSOCIATION OF WESTMORELAND

The following articles prepared and offered by Richard Henry Lee were passed by the patriots of that day at Leedstown, Virginia, on the 27th of February 1766:

"Roused by danger and alarmed at attempts, foreign and domestic, to reduce the people of this country to a state of abject and detestable slavery by destroying that free and happy condition of government under which they have hitherto lived,

We, who subscribe this paper, have associated and do bind ourselves to each other, to God, and to our country, by the firmest ties that religion and virtue can frame, most sacredly and punctually to stand by and with our lives and fortunes, to support, maintain, and defend each other in the observance and execution of these following articles –

FIRST: We declare all due allegiance and obedience to our lawful Sovereign, George the Third, King of Great Britain. And we determine to the utmost of our power to preserve the laws, the peace and good order of this Colony, as far as is consistent with the preservation of our Constitutional rights and liberty,

SECONDLY: As we know it to be the Birthright privilege of every British subject (and of the people of Virginia as being such) founded on Reason, Law, and Compact; that he cannot be legally tried, but by his peers; that he cannot be taxed, but by consent of a Parliament, in which he is represented by persons chosen by the people, and who themselves pay a part of the tax they impose on others. If, therefore, any person or persons shall attempt, by any action, or proceeding, to deprive this Colony of these fundamental rights, we will immediately regard him or them, as the most dangerous enemy of the community; and we will go to any extremity, not only to prevent the success of such attempts, but to stigmatize and punish the offender.

THIRDLY: As the Stamp Act does absolutely direct the property of the people to be taken from them without their consent expressed by their representatives and as in many cases it deprives the British American Subject of his right to trial by jury; we do determine, at every hazard, and paying no regard to danger or to death, we will exert every faculty, to prevent the execution of the said Stamp Act in any instance whatsoever within this Colony. And every abandoned wretch, who shall be so lost to virtue and public good, as wickedly to contribute to the introduction or fixture of the Stamp Act in this Colony, by using stampt paper, or by any other means, we will, with the utmost expedition, convince all such profligates that immediate danger and disgrace shall attend their prostitute purposes.

FOURTHLY: That the last article may most surely and effectually be executed, we engage to each other, that whenever it shall be known to any of this association, that any person is so conducting himself as to favor the introduction of the Stamp Act, that immediate notice shall be given to as many of the association as possible; and that every individual so informed, shall, with expedition, repair to a place of meeting to be appointed as near the scene of action as may be.

FIFTHLY: Each associator shall do his true endeavor to obtain as many signers to this association, as he possibly can.

SIXTHLY: If any attempt shall be made on the liberty or property of any associator for any action or thing to be done in consequence of this agreement, we do most solemnly bind ourselves by the sacred engagements above entered into, at the risk of our lives and fortunes, to restore such associate to his liberty and to protect him in the enjoyment of his property."

In testimony of the good faith with which we resolve to execute this association we have this 27th day of February 1766 in Virginia, put our hands and seals hereto.

Richard Henry Lee * Will. Robinson * Lewis Willis * Thos. Lud. Lee * Saml. Washington * Chas. Washington * Moore Fauntleroy * Francis Lightfoot Lee * Thomas Jones * Rodham Kenner * Spencer M. Ball * Richard Mitchell * Joseph Murdock * Richd. Parker * Spence Monroe * John Watts * Robt. Lovell * John Blagge * Charles Weeks * Willm. Booth * Geo. Turbeville * Alvin Moxley * Wm. Flood * John Ballatine, Jr. * William Lee * Thos. Chilton * Richard Buckner * Jos. Pierce * Will. Chilton * John Williams * William Sydnor * John Monroe * William Cocke * Willm. Grayson * Wm. Brockenbrough * Saml. Selden * Richd. Lee * Daniel Tibbs * Francis Thornton,Jr. * Peter Rust * John Lee Jr. * Francis Waring * John Upshau * Meriwether Smith * Thos. Roane * Jas. Edmondson * Jas. Webb. Jr. * John Edmondson * Jas. Banks * Smith Young * Laur. Washington * W . Roane * Richd. Hodges * Jas. Upshau * Jas. Booker * A . Montague * Richd. Jeffries * John Suggett * John S. Woodcock * Robt. Wormeley Carter * John Blackwell * Winder S. Kenner * Wm. Bronaugh * Wm. Peirce * John Berryman * John Dickson * John Browne * Edwd. Sanford * Charles Chilton * Edward Sanford * Jos. Lane * John Beale, Jr. * John Newton * Will. Beale, Jr. * Chs. Mortimer * Wm. Pierce * John Berryman * John Dickson * John Broone * Edwd, Sanford * Charles Chilton * Edward Sanford * Daniel McCarty * Jer. Rush * Edwd. Ransdell * Townshend Dade * John Ashton * W . Brent * Francis Foushee * John Smith, Jr. * Wm. Ball * Thos. Barnes * Jos. Blackwell * Reuben Meriwether * Edw. Mountjoy * Wm. J. Mountjoy * Thos. Mountjoy * Gilbt. Campbell * John Edmondsen, Jr. * Charles Beale * Peter Grant * Thompson Mason * Jona. Beckwith * Jas. Samford * John Belfield * W . Smith * John Augt. Washington * Thos. Belfield * Edgcomb Suggett * Henry Francks * John Bland, Jr. * Jas. Emerson * Thos. Logan * Jo. Milliken * Ebenezer Fisher * Hancock Eustace * John Richards * Thos. Jett * Thos. Douglas * Max Robinson * John Orr