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Lot 292
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Lee Family Archive, Including Partial 1776 Letter from Richard Henry Lee to Patrick Henry, 8 items
Lee Family Archive, Including Partial 1776 Letter from Richard Henry Lee to Patrick Henry, 8 items
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Description:

Lee Family
Virginia, ca. 1747-1806
Lee Family Archive, Including Partial 1776 Letter from Richard Henry Lee to Patrick Henry, 8 items
Archive
LEE FAMILY, Archive of Documents, 1747-1806. 8 documents, 11 pp. Some separations on folds, edge tears; general toning; little paper loss affecting text.

This small archive of documents includes four documents from the settlement of the estate of Henry Lee I, who died in 1747, and a pair of documents in 1806 that involved the sale of 1,100 acres of land in Ohio from Ludwell Lee to his second cousin Richard Bland Lee.

The highlight of this small collection is a partial contemporary clerical copy of an important letter written by Richard Henry Lee in Philadelphia to Patrick Henry on the eve of the assembly of the Fifth Virginia Convention on May 6, 1776, in Williamsburg. On May 15, the convention declared that the former government of Virginia was "totally dissolved," and called for a declaration of rights, a republican constitution, and a federal relationship with other British colonies. It also instructed its delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, of whom Richard Henry Lee was one, to declare independence. On June 7, Richard Henry Lee proposed to the Second Continental Congress that "these colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." Less than a month later, the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. On June 29, the Fifth Virginia Convention adopted the first Constitution of Virginia and selected Patrick Henry as the first governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Contents and Excerpts
- Account of John Holt against Col. Henry Lee's estate, July 8, 1747. 1 p., 7.25" x 5.25".

- Lewis Henson, Autograph Document Signed, Receipt for Payment from Henry Lee's estate, October 27, 1748. 1 p., 6.5" x 4.25".
"Received of Mr Richard Lee thirty Pounds Currt Money on Act of the Estate of Colo Henry Lee, decd."

- Manuscript Document, Account of John Bushrod with Henry Lee, March 16, 1749. 1 p., 7.75" x 5.75".

- Manuscript Document, Account of John Champe with Henry Lee, May 25, 1749. 1 p., 19.5" x 7.25".

- Richard Lee, Autograph Letter Signed, to John Craig, November 21, 1772. 1 p., 6.5" x 8.5".
"I have an order on you for £21..1..9 Cy from Mr W Sydebothum & shall be glad to know whether you will accept it."

- Fragment of Contemporary Clerical Copy of Letter of Richard Henry Lee to Patrick Henry, April 20, 1776, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1 p., 7.25" x 12".
"Having done myself the pleasure of writing to you by General Lee, I must now refer you to that letter and at present invite your attention to the most important concerns of our approaching convention. Ages yet unborn, and millions existing at present, may rue or bless that Assembly, on which their happiness or misery will so eminently depend. Virginia has hitherto taken the lead in great afairs and many now look to her with anxious expectation, hoping that the spirit, wisdom and energy of Councils will rouse America from the fatal lethargy into which the feebleness, folly and interested views of the Propriety Governments, with the aid of tory machinations, have most unhappily thrown her. The 12 years experience we have had of the perfidy and despotic intention of the British Court is still further demonstrated by the King's speech, by the express declarations of every man in both Houses of Parliament, by their infamous retrospective robbery Act, and by the intercepted letter of the Secretary of State to Governor Eden, all join in proving the design of the British Court to subdue at every event, and to enslave America, after having destroyed its best members. The act of Parliament has to every legal intent and purpose dissolved our Government, uncommissioned every magistrate, and placed us in the high road to anarchy. In Virginia, we have certainly no magistrate lawfully qualified to [?] a murderer, or any other Vallain offending ever so attrociously against the state...."

- Ludwell Lee and Eliza Lee, Manuscript Document Signed, Indenture to Richard Bland Lee, December 15, 1806, Virginia. 4 pp., 7.75" x 13".
"Witnesseth, that the said Ludwell Lee & Eliza his wife for and in consideration of the sum of two thousand two hundred Dollars to them in hand paid by the said Richard Bland Lee...Have Bargained sold aliend and conveyed and by these presents do bargain, sell alien and convey...two tracts or parcels of Land situate, lying and being in the State of Ohio which said tracts of Land was granted unto Alexander Parker (as having been a Capt for eight years in the Virginia line in continental establishment...."

- Charles Binns Jr., Partially Printed Document Signed, Order for Separate Examination of Eliza Lee Regarding Indenture, December 17, [1806], Loudoun County, Virginia. 1 p., 8.25" x 11".
"We the subscribers, two of the Justices of the peace, in and for the County aforesaid, do hereby certify that we did this 17th day of December personally go to the said Eliza Lee and did examine her privily and apart from her said husband touching the conveyance aforesaid, who declared that she did execute the said deed freely and voluntarily without the persuasions or threats of her said husband...."

Henry Lee (1691-1747) was born in Virginia and became a prominent colonist, planter, and soldier. He was educated at the College of William and Mary and inherited land in what became Prince William County. He operated the family plantation, using mostly enslaved laborers. He married Mary Bland (1704-1764), and they had seven children, including Richard "Squire" Lee.

Richard "Squire" Lee (1726-1795) was born at Lee Hall in Westmoreland County, Virginia, to Henry Lee and Mary Bland. He represented Westmoreland County in the House of Burgesses, Virginia Revolutionary Conventions, and House of Delegates from 1757 until his death in 1795. He also served as a justice of the peace for Westmoreland County and a naval officer for the port of Potomac. In 1786, at age 60, he married his 17-year-old cousin Sarah Bland Poythress, and they had five children. He was a first cousin of Founding Fathers Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee, both of whom signed the Declaration of Independence.

Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794) was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, to Thomas Lee and Hannah Harrison Ludwell Lee. His father was royal governor of Virginia in 1749-1750. He left Virginia in 1748 for additional education in England, and he returned in 1753 to help settle the estate of his parents, both of whom died in 1750. In 1757, he was appointed a justice of the peace for Westmoreland County, and in 1758, he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he first met Patrick Henry. Both men were early advocates of independence and remained allies throughout the Revolutionary War. In 1774, Lee was chosen as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. As a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in June 1776, Lee introduced a motion to declare independence from Great Britain. He had returned to Virginia before Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, but he signed it when he returned to Congress. He served as the President of the Congress of the Confederation from November 1784 to November 1785. He represented Virginia in the U.S. Senate from 1789 to 1792. He married Anne Aylett (d. 1768) in 1757, and they had six children, including Ludwell Lee. In 1769, he married Anne Gaskins Pinckard, and they had seven children.

Ludwell Lee (1760-1836) was born to Richard Henry Lee and Anne Aylett (1738-1768). He was educated by private tutors before being sent to London for further education. He studied law at the Middle Temple and returned to Virginia to study under Professor George Wythe at Williamsburg. During the final months of the Revolutionary War, he volunteered for military service in Westmoreland County in a troop of dragoons. He became an aide-de-camp to the Marquis de Lafayette and during or after the war received the rank of colonel. He was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1784 and served as a justice of the peace from 1797. He represented both Prince William County and later Fairfax County in the House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate. In 1788, he married his cousin Flora Lee (1770-1795), with whom he had three children before her death. In 1797, he married Elizabeth Armistead (1778-1820), with whom he had six children. In 1810, he owned 69 enslaved persons; in 1820, he owned 44, and in 1830, he owned 24.

Richard Bland Lee (1761-1827) was born in Virginia to Henry Lee II and Lucy Grymes Lee. He enrolled at the College of William and Mary in 1779. He began managing his father's property in 1780 or 1781, and in 1787, he inherited 1,500 acres that would become his estate named "Sully." He represented Loudoun County in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1784 to 1788 and in 1796; he also represented Fairfax County in 1799. He strongly supported the ratification of the U.S. Constitution and represented northern Virginia in the first two federal Congresses (1789-1795). In 1815, President James Madison appointed Lee as one of three commissioners to supervise the reconstruction of buildings damaged by British troops in the 1814 attack on Washington. In 1819, President James Monroe appointed him as a judge of the Orphans' Court in Washington, D.C., a position he held until his death. In 1794, he married Elizabeth Collins (c. 1768-1858), and they had nine children, though five died as infants or young children.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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