Richard Henry Lee was an American statesman from Virginia best known for the motion in
the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies' independence from Great Britain.
He was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and his famous resolution of June 1776 led
to the United States Declaration of Independence, which Lee signed.
He also served a one-year term as the President of the Continental Congress, and was a United
States Senator from Virginia from 1789 to 1792, serving during part of that time as
one of the first Presidents pro tempore.
Early life and education Lee was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia
to Thomas Lee and Hannah Harrison Ludwell Lee on January 20, 1732.
In 1748, 16, Lee left Virginia for Yorkshire, England, to complete his formal education
at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield.
Career In 1757, Lee was appointed justice of the
peace in Westmoreland County.
In 1758 he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he met Patrick Henry.
An early advocate of independence, Lee became one of the first to create Committees of Correspondence
among the many independence-minded Americans in the various colonies.
In 1766, almost ten years before the American Revolutionary War, Lee is credited with having
authored the Westmoreland Resolution which was publicly signed by prominent landowners
who met at Leedstown, Westmoreland County, Virginia on 27 Feb 1766.
This resolution was signed by four brothers of George Washington as well as Gilbert Campbell.
American Revolution In August 1774, Lee was chosen as a delegate
to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
In Lee's Resolution on the 7th of June 1776 during the Second Continental Congress, Lee
put forth the motion to the Continental Congress to declare Independence from Great Britain,
which read:
Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent
States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political
connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.
Lee had returned to Virginia by the time Congress voted on and adopted the Declaration of Independence,
but he signed the document when he returned to Congress.
President of Congress Richard Henry Lee was elected the sixth President
of Congress under the Articles of Confederation on November 30, 1784, in the French Arms Tavern,
Trenton, New Jersey.
On January 11, 1785, Congress convened in the old New York City Hall and Lee presided
over that Congress until November 23, 1785.
Although, he was not paid a salary for his office as president, his household expenses
were paid by Congress in the amount of $12,203.13. Lee's Congress was most active in 1785, passing
numerous legislation, including establishing a United States dollar tied to the Spanish
dollar as the national currency.
His most pressing issue, however, was to settle the states' territorial disputes over the
Northwest Territory.
Throughout his term, Lee remained steadfast that the release of states’ territorial
claims on the Northwest Territory would enable the federal government to fund itself with
land sales.
He believed that the urgency of this measure was paramount because borrowing more foreign
money was no longer prudent, and he abhorred the movement to establish federal taxes.
The sale of these vast federal lands, he concluded, was the nation's only hope to pay off the
war debt and adequately fund federal government.
Debate began on the expansion of the Ordinance of 1784 and Thomas Jefferson’s survey method
“hundreds of ten geographical miles square, each mile containing 6086 and 4-10ths of a
foot” and “sub-divided into lots of one mile square each, or 850 and 4-10ths of an
acre" on April 14.
On May 3, 1785, William Grayson of Virginia made a motion seconded by James Monroe to
change “seven miles square” to “six miles square”, and the current US Survey
system was born.
Lee wrote to his friend and colleague Samuel Adams:
I hope we shall shortly finish our plan for disposing of the western Lands to discharge
the oppressive public debt created by the war & I think that if this source of revenue
be rightly managed, that these republics may soon be discharged from that state of oppression
and distress that an indebted people must invariably feel.
The states relinquished their right to this "test tract" of land, and the Land Ordinance
of 1785 was passed on May 20, 1785.
The federal government, however, lacked the resources to manage the newly surveyed lands
because Native Americans refused to relinquish a large percentage of the platted land, and
most of the territory remained too dangerous for settlement.
This either required troops to eject the Native Americans or capital to purchase their land
"fairly", insuring the peaceful sale and settlement.
Additionally the small amount of federal land that was not in dispute by the Native Americans
was enthusiastically being occupied by western settlers that had no faith in or respect for
the Congress as a federal authority.
The settlers claimed the land as squatters, and the Congress was unable to muster the
capital to magistrates let alone troops to enforce the $1.00 per acre fee required for
a clear federal land title.
With the states no longer in control of the lands and no federal magistrates or troops
to enforce the laws, a tide of western squatters flowed into the Northwest Territory. Lee's
plan to fill the federal treasury with the proceeds of land sales failed, but the survey
system developed under the Land Ordinance of 1785 is still used today.
Political offices Justice of the Peace for Westmoreland County,
Virginia Virginia House of Burgesses
Member of the Continental Congress A Signer of the Declaration of Independence
Virginia House of Delegates President of the Continental Congress
United States Senator from Virginia President pro tempore during the Second Congress
Personal life Marriages and children
Richard married first on December 5, 1757, Anne Aylett, daughter of William Aylett and
Elizabeth Eskridge.
Anne died December 12, 1768 at Chantille, Westmoreland Co., Virginia.
The couple had six children, four of whom survived infancy:
Elizabeth Virginia Lee, who died in infancy.
Thomas Lee, resided at Park Gate from 1790 to 1805.
Col. Ludwell Lee, Esq., who married Flora Lee, daughter of Hon.
Philip Ludwell Lee, Sr., Esq. and Elizabeth Steptoe, who married secondly, Philip Richard
Fendall I. Mary Lee.
Hannah Lee, who married Hon.
Corbin Washington, son of Col. John Augustine Washington and Hannah Bushrod.
Marybelle Lee, who died in infancy.
Richard remarried in June or July 1769 to Anne Pinckard.
The couple had seven children, five of whom survived infancy:
Anne Lee, who married Hon.
Charles Lee, U.S. Attorney General under John Adams.
Charles was the son of Maj. Gen. Henry Lee II and Lucy Grymes.
Henrietta "Harriotte" Lee, who married Hon.
George Richard Lee Turberville, son of Hon.
George Richard Turberville, Jr. and Martha Corbin.
Sarah Caldwell "Sally" Lee, who married Edmund Jennings Lee I, son of Maj. Gen. Henry Lee
II and Lucy Grymes.
Cassius Lee.
Francis Lightfoot Lee II, who married Jane Fitzgerald, daughter of Col. John Fitzgerald
and Jane Digges. ? Lee, who died in infancy.
? Lee, who died in infancy.
Richard honored his brother, Francis Lightfoot Lee, by naming his youngest son after him.
The younger Francis married Jane Fitzgerald on 9 Feb 1810.
In 1811 he purchased the estate Sully in Fairfax County, Virginia from his second cousin Richard
Bland Lee.
Jane died on 25 Jul 1816, shortly after the birth on their fifth child.
Children of Richard Henry Lee's son Francis Lightfoot Lee
Jane Elizabeth Lee; married Henry T. Harrison Samuel Philips Lee; Rear Admiral; married
Elizabeth Blair, daughter of Francis Preston Blair
John Fitzgerald Lee Thomas Arthur Lee, called Arthur, married
in 1841 in Woodford County, Kentucky, to Agatha "Agnes" Alexander, cousin of Elizabeth Blair,
his brother Samuel Philips Lee's wife Frances Ann Lee; married Goldsborough Robinson
Ancestry Richard was the son of Col. Thomas Lee, Hon.
of "Stratford Hall", Westmoreland Co., Virginia.
Thomas married Hannah Harrison Ludwell.
Hannah was the daughter of Col. Philip Ludwell II of "Greenspring", and Hannah Harrison.
Thomas was the son of Col. Richard Lee II, Esq., "the scholar" and Laetitia Corbin.
Laetitia was the daughter of Richard’s neighbor and, Councillor, Hon.
Henry Corbin, Sr. and Alice Burnham.
Richard II, was the son of Col. Richard Lee I, Esq., "the immigrant" and Anne Constable.
Anne was the daughter of Thomas Constable and a ward of Sir John Thoroughgood.
Jason Barfield II Legacy
Lee County, Georgia is named in his honor.
Richard Henry Lee Elementary School in Rossmoor, California and Richard Henry Lee School in
Chicago, Illinois are also named in his honor.
Richard Henry Lee Elementary in Glen Burnie, Maryland is also named after him.
The Chantilly Archaeological Site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1971.
In popular culture Lee is portrayed as a character in the musical
1776.
He was portrayed by Ron Holgate in both the Broadway cast and in the 1972 film.
In one scene, Lee performs a song called "The Lees of Old Virginia," in which he explains
how he knows he will be able to convince the Virginia House of Burgesses to allow him to
propose independence and celebrates his own status as a Lee, one of the First Families
of Virginia.
The character is presented as vain, but not very bright, serving the play as a comic device
rather than a historically based portrayal of Lee.
References
External links Richard Henry Lee at the Biographical Directory
of the United States Congress President Richard Henry Lee
Richard Henry Lee Biography by Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, 1856
Richard Henry Lee at Find a Grave Richard Henry Lee Bio
Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. "Lee, Richard Henry".
Encyclopædia Britannica.
Cambridge University Press.