Col. Richard “the scholar” Lee, II

Col. Richard Lee II, Esq. (1647-1715) was a Colonel, planter, member of the Upper House and the King's Council. He was known as "Richard the Scholar". Richard was the son of Col. Richard Lee I, Esq., "the Immigrant" (1618-1664) and Anne Constable (ca. 1621-1666).

Richard was born at "Paradise", in Northumberland County, Virginia, the estate he inherited from his father when he died in 1664. This estate consisted of 1,350 acres, and was later part of Gloucester County. He was educated at Oxford in England and may have studied law at the London “Inns”. He seemed destined for a career in the church, but he elected rather to return to the life of a Virginia gentleman, residing at “Paradise”. In 1673, when his older brother John died unmarried, Richard inherited the estate, “Machodoc”. Richard left “Paradise” to overseers and removed to his new estate.

Richard married Laetitia Corbin (ca. 1657-1706), daughter of Richard’s neighbor and, Councillor, Hon. Henry Corbin, Sr. (1629-1676) and Alice (Eltonhead) Burnham (ca. 1627-1684)

Soon after his marriage, Richard was elected to the House of Burgesses. In 1676 Richard became a member of the King’s Council and he served in this capacity off and on until 1698. On one such absence in 1690 he had lost his seat because of his refusal to take the oath of allegiance to William III, King of England (“William of Orange”) (1650-1702). However, he was reinstated within a year. Richard was forced to retire from this position because of ill health. The Council was a body that served as the Governor’s privy council, the Upper House of the Colonial Legislature, and the Colonial Supreme Court. As early as 1680 he was Colonel of Horse in the counties of Westmoreland, Northumberland and Stafford. He was appointed by Sir Gov. Edmund Andros (1637-1714) to be “Naval Officer and Receiver of Virginia Dutys for the River Potomac”. Richard II, had one of the largest libraries in the Colony. He spent almost his whole life in study, and usually wrote his notes in Greek, Hebrew, or Latin. It was because of this that he was termed “the scholar”. Richard was a supporter of the Established Church.

Richard died March 12, 1714 at “Machodoc”, Westmoreland County. His will was probated on April 27, 1715. He was buried at the old “Burnt House Fields”, located near “Mount Pleasant”. Laetitia died on October 6, 1706 at “Machodoc”, and her tombstone can still be seen at “Mount Pleasant”.

Richard established his residence at the “Machodoc” plantation, which was located on the Potomac River, near the town of Hague, in Westmoreland County. This was a large brick house, largely inclosed by a brick wall. The estate was inherited by his son Hon. Richard Lee III (1679-1718) who was at the time residing in London as a tobacco merchant with his family. Richard III leased his estate in Virginia to his brothers, Col. Thomas Lee, Hon. (1690-1750) and Capt. Henry Lee I (1691-1747), for “an annual rent of one peppercorn only, payable on Christmas Day”. After Richard’s death in 1718, the estate was sold by his wife Martha Silk (d.ca. 1734), who sold it to her brother-in-law, Col. Thomas Lee, (1690-1750). Thomas resided here until it burned down January 29, 1729, and removed to his newly built “Stratford Hall”.

The fire was so serious that the field near the old mansion at “Machodoc” where the Lee burial ground was situated, that it became forever known as the old “Burnt House Fields”. The land was sold to Richard Lee III’s only son Col. George Lee (1714-1761), who had come over from England. A new plantation was built by George who called his new estate “Mount Pleasant”. The new house was built further back from the river and upon higher ground. This house also burned down.

The inscription on Richard Lee's tombstone at Burned House cemetery reads (translated from the Latin):

"Here lieth the body of Richard Lee, Esq., born in Virginia, son of Richard Lee, Gentleman, descended of an ancient family of Merton- Regis, in Shropshire.
"While he exercised the office of a magistrate he was a zealous promoter of the public good. He was very skillful in the Greek and Latin languages and other parts of polite learning. He quietly resigned his soul to God, who he always devoutly worshipped, on the 12th day of March, in the year 1714, in the 68th year of his age."
"Nearby is interred the body of Lettuce, his faithful wife, daughter of Henry Corbyn, Gentleman. A most affectionate mother, she was also distinguished by piety toward God, charity to the poor, and kindness to all. She died on the 6th day of October, 1706, in the 49th year of her age."

The 7 children of Richard Lee and wife Laetitia Corbin were:

1. John Lee (21 May 1678-1679), who died in infancy.
2. Hon. Richard Lee III (1679-1718), who married Martha Silk (1680-ca. 1734).
3. Capt. Philip Lee, Sr., Hon., Esq. (1681-1744) of "Blenheim", who married 1) Sarah (Brooke) Dent (1683-1724), widow of her uncle, Col. William Dent, Sr., Gent. (1660-1705). Sarah was the daughter of Col. Thomas Brooke, Jr., Hon. (1660-1730) and Barbara Dent (1676-1754). 2)
4. Ann Lee (1683-1732), who married 1) Capt. Daniel McCarthy, Sr., Esq. (1679-1724), son of Dennis (MacCartee) McCarthy, Sr. (d. 1694) and Elizabeth Billington. 2) Hon. William Fitzhugh, Jr. (1679-1713) of "Eagle's Nest", King George Co., Virginia
5. Francis Lee (1685-aft. 1754), who died childless, and is NOT the father of the South Carolina Lee Family
6. Col. Thomas Lee, Hon. (1690-1750) of "Stratford Hall", Westmoreland Co., Virginia. Thomas married Hannah Harrison Ludwell (1701-1750), daughter of Col. Philip Ludwell II (1672-1726) of "Greenspring", and Hannah Harrison (1679-1731).
7. Capt. Henry Lee I (1691-1747) of "Lee Hall", Westmoreland Co., Virginia. Henry married Mary Bland (1704-1764), daughter of Hon. Richard Bland, Sr. (1665-1720) and his second wife, Elizabeth Randolph (d. 1719).

Not a known child:

• Arthur Lee (1693-1756), who married an unknown Sherrad .

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References

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lee_II
• "The Lees of Virginia: An American Legacy," Lee Family Digital Archive (http://leearchive.wlu.edu/legacy/index.html : accessed 2014-04-10), Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia.
• "The Lees of Virginia," The Society of the Lees of Virginia (http://www.thesocietyoftheleesofva.org/index.php?option=com_content... : accessed 2014-04-10), The Society of the Lees of Virginia, Alexandria, Virginia.
• Paul C. Nagel, The Lees of Virginia: Seven Generations of an American Family, New York: Oxford University Press, 1990; specifically Ch. 2, "[Richard Lee II], The Scholar, 1664–1715," pp. 21–32; digital images, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=UbyPlhZeKZIC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA21 : accessed 2014-04-10).
• Louis B. Wright, "Richard Lee II, A Belated Elizabethan in Virginia," The Huntington Library Quarterly 2:1-35 (October 1938); San Marino, California: Huntington Library Press, 1938; digital facsimile, Lee Family Digital Archive (http://leearchive.wlu.edu/papers/manuscripts/library/wright.html : accessed 2014-04-10), Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia.
• Lancaster, Robert Alexander (1915). Historic Virginia homes and churches (Now in the public domain. ed.). Lippincott. pp. 343–. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
  • Meade, Bishop William. OLD CHURCHES MINISTERS AND FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA. VOLUME II. Philadelphia, 1857. Reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1966, 1978. [Ancestry.com / Search / Catalog / Old Churches Ministers and Families of Virginia, Volume II page 152-153]
• Lyndon Lee Cannon (Mrs. R. B. Cannon), (The State Company Columbia, South Carolina 1943), page 14.
• https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Richard_Lee_%2820%29 cites
• 2. Bowie, Effie Gwynn. Across the Years in Prince George's County, a Genealogical and Biographical History of some Prince George's Co. (Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1975) pg. 517.
• 4. Bowie, Effie Gwynn. Across the Years in Prince George's County, a Genealogical and Biographical History of some Prince George's Co. (Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1975) pg. 518.
• 4. Virginia Vital Records, Indexed by Judith McGhan, Gen. Publishing, Baltimore, 1984 pg. 524.
• 5. Lee, Edmund Jennings. Lee of Virginia, 1642-1892: biographical and genealogical sketches of the descendants of Colonel Richard Lee, with brief notices of the related families of Allerton, Armistead, Ashton, Aylett, Bedinger, Beverley, Bland, Bolling, Carroll, Carter, Chambers, Corbin, Custis, Diggs, Fairfax, Fitzhugh, Gardner, Grymes, Hanson, Jenings, Jones, Ludwell, Marshall, Mason, Page, Randolph, Shepherd, Shippen, Tabb, Taylor, Turberville, Washington, and others. (Philadelphia: Lee, 1895) pp. 52, 74. Information on these pages suggests that he was born in what is now Gloucester County.
• 6. Lee, Edmund Jennings. Lee of Virginia, 1642-1892: biographical and genealogical sketches of the descendants of Colonel Richard Lee, with brief notices of the related families of Allerton, Armistead, Ashton, Aylett, Bedinger, Beverley, Bland, Bolling, Carroll, Carter, Chambers, Corbin, Custis, Diggs, Fairfax, Fitzhugh, Gardner, Grymes, Hanson, Jenings, Jones, Ludwell, Marshall, Mason, Page, Randolph, Shepherd, Shippen, Tabb, Taylor, Turberville, Washington, and others. (Philadelphia: Lee, 1895) p. 78, p. 81. <Archive.Org>