Sir Robert Lee, KG, MP

• 'The House of Commons: 1509 - 1558 ; 1, Appendices, constituencies ..., Volume 4 By Stanley T. Bindoff, John S. Roskell, Lewis Namier, Romney
• The House of Commons: 1509 - 1558 ; 1, Appendices, constituencies ..., Volume 4 By Stanley T. Bindoff, John S. Roskell, Lewis Namier, Romney
• Pg. 505
• LEE, Sir Anthony (1510/11-49), of Quarrendon, Bucks.
  • BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 1541, 1547*
• b. 1510/11, 1st s. of Sir Robert Lee of Quarrendon by one Cope. m.(1) by 1531, Margaret, da. of Sir Henry Wyatt of Allington Castle, Kent, 4s. inc. Sir Henry* and 'Robert^' 4da.; (2) settlement 23 May 1548, Anne, da. of Richard Hassall of Hankelow, Cheshire, 2s. illegit. bef. m. inc. Richard^ ? 1 da. suc. fa. 23 Feb. 1539. Kntd. June/Dec. 1539.1
• Esquire of the body by 1532; j.p. Bucks. 1539-d.; commr. benevolence 1544/45, chantries 1548, musters 1548; custos rot. 20 Dec. 1548.*
• There were several branches of the Lee family of Buckinghamshire all descended from Anthony Lee's great-grandfather Bennet, who had come from Cheshire to establish himself at Quarrendon. The main line was represented two generations later by Sir Robert Lee, courtier, sheepfarmer and enclosing landlord who added four manors to the Quarrendon estate. He may have sat as a knight of the shire in the early Parliaments of Henry VIII, for which the names are lost, and his name occurs with that of Sir Francis Bryan* on Cromwell's list of 1533 thought to cantain suggestions for filling vacancies in the House of Commons.3
• Sir Robert Lee's views on his son's education may be inferred from the provision in his will of 1537 that the younger, Bennet, was 'to be brought up in virtue and learning as a knight ought to be'. In Anthony's case this probably included his early introduction at court, an example which he was to follow with his own son. He would not have been without other friends there: his stepmother, Lettice, who had been brought up with Lady May Bryan, sister of the 2nd Lord Berners, was the widow of Robert Knollys, a gentleman usher, and his step-brother Francis Knollys* would marry Catherine, daughter of Mary Boleyn. Lee's own first marriage brought him into the literary circle of his brother-in-law Sir Thomas Wyatt I*: although he was to achieve no distinction in this setting, one poem of his is preserved in the British Library.4 . . .
• It was after his father's death on 23 Feb. 1539 that Lee was put on the Buckinghamshire bench, and probably about the same time he was knighted: he was so styled when, at the end of that year, . . .
• Pg. 506
• . . . The fact that Lee was not pricked sheriff on 12 Nov. 1549, although one of those nominated, could have been due to his final illness, for he died 12 days later. His will, drawn up a few month previously, disposed of his estate among four sons (including one named Cromwell) who were all under 21, and four daughters each of whom was to receive L200 on marriage. He left a large flock of sheep to his wife Anne, with plate and household stuff; if she remarried, the plate and good were to go to Richard and Russell Lee alias Hassall, his two youngest sons whom she had borne him before marriage. . . .
• Pg. 507
• LEE, Sir Henry (1530/31-1611), of Quarrendon, Bucks.
  • BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 1558, 1559, 1571, 1572
• b. 1530/31, 1st s. of Sir Anthony Lee* of Quarrendon by Margaret, da. of Sir Henry Wyatt of Allington Castle, Kent; 'bro. of Robert Lee' and half-bro. of Richard Lee. educ. New Coll. Oxf. m. by 1554, Anne,
• Pg. 508
• da. of William Paget, 1st Baron Paget, 2s. 1da. all d.v.p. suc. fa. 24 Nov 1549. Kntd. 2 Oct. 1552; KG nom. 23 Apr. inst. 24 May 1597.1
• Clerk, the armoury by 1550, master June 1580-1602 or later; j.p. Bucks. by 1558/59-77 or later, q. by 1579-96 or later, Oxon. by 1577-96 or later; royal champion Nov. 1559-60; commr. musters, Oxon. 1573; steward, Woodstock, Oxon. 1573; master of the leash by 1574; constable, Harlech castle, Merion. by 1600.*
• Henry Lee was in his late 'teens when his father died, but according to his monumental inscription, composed by a Kentish relative, he owed his childhood to Kent and Sir Thomas Wyatt I*, and his youth to the court of Henry VIII, into whose service he was sworn at the age of 14. It was perhaps these circumstances which gave rise to the supposition that he was the King's son. In 1527 his grandfather Sir Henry Wyatt left him L10 for his schooling, and this may have included a spell at Oxford where, on his own testimony in old age, he was once at New College. His name does not appear on the list of household officers and others drawn up for Henry VIII's funeral, but within three years, and while still under age, he appears to have obtained a clerkship in the armoury; in March 1550 he accounted for the wages of the armourers for the previous nine months. By then he had succeeded to the family seat at Quarrendon and a string of Buckinghamshire manors.3
• It is not known whether Lee took . . . He may also have been sponsored by the 1st Baron Paget, to whose daughter he was probablly already affianced if not married:. . . He died on 12 Feb. 1611.5
• _______________ Supporting data

https://www.stirnet.com/genie/data/british/ff/fletcher05.php

A. William Fletcher of Campsall, Yorkshire (b 1532, bur 05.04.1590) m. Elizabeth Wentworth (dau of John Wentworth of North Elmsall by Anne, dau of Sir Brian Hastings of Fenwick) ii. Elizabeth Fletcher m. Henry Lee alias Waring (natural son of Robert of Hatfield, the brother of Sir Henry)