History of Stratford Hall, (Westmoreland County) Virginia United States of America

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Biographies:

Arthur Lee, diplomatist, was born at "Stratford," Westmoreland county, Va., Dec. 21. 1740; the sixth and youngest son of Gov. Thomas and Hannah (Ludwell) Lee; grandson of Col. Richard and L?titia (Corbin) Lee and of Col. Philip Ludwell of Green Spring, Va.; and great grandson of Richard and Ann Lee and of Philip Ludwell, governor of North Carolina, 1689-91. Richard Lee of Shropshire, England, was in the privy council of Charles I., was secretary of Sir William Berkeley, with whom he immigrated to Virginia in 1641 and became the founder of the Lee family of Virginia. Arthur Lee was educated at Eton and the University of Edinburgh, where he received a prize, a diploma, and the degree of M.D. After making a journey through Holland and Germany he returned to Virginia and practised medicine in Williamsburg. The effort to enforce the stamp act which called forth the Westmoreland declaration determined him to study law in order more effectively to assist the colonies in obtaining redress from the heavy taxation laid upon them. He studied law in the Temple, London, 1766-70, and practised in London, 1770-76, meantime studying the Colonial questions and discussing the Townshend acts and other aggressive measures proposed by Parliament. At this time he won considerable fame as a writer, signing himself "Monitor" and "Junius Americanus." He was also the author of "An Appeal to the English Nation." He was a leading member of the "Supporters of the Bill of Rights," organized for the discussion of the measures of the British ministry and the restoration to the American colonies of the right to regulate taxes through their own representatives. In supporting the resolutions adopted by the society, of which Lee was the author, he sustained an able discussion with the unknown author of the "Letters of Junius." He gained the friendship of Burke, Priestly, Dunning, Baire and Sir Willlain Jones, and was admitted to a fellowship in the Royal society. He was appointed by the general court of Massachusetts in 1770 as representative for that colony in London as associate with Benjamin Franklin, and in 1775, when Richard Penn reached London with the last petition from the Continental congress and the appeal to the English people, of which his brother, Richard Henry Lee, was the author, he undertook to have the petition reach the king, but in vain. He was appointed by congress, with Franklin, Jay and Dickinson, to open correspondence with friends of America in Europe and was made the secret agent of the committee in London, and he opened negotiations with the French government which led to his residence in Paris during the spring and summer of 1776. In 1776 congress appointed him a joint commissioner with Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane to secure a treaty of alliance with France, and in 1777 he was intrusted with special missions to the governments of Spain and Prussia, and in October, 1778, was continued as sole commissioner to Spain, also acting in the same capacity to the court of Prussia but residing in Paris. His frequent quarrels with Franklin and Deane led to his recall in the autumn of 1779. He was a representative in the general assembly of Virginia, 1781; a delegate to the Continental congress, 1781-84; Indian commissioner in western New York and Pennsylvania, 1784, and a member of the board of treasury, 1784-89. He was opposed to the adoption of the Federal constitution, and his opposition appears to have been due to excessive distrust in the motives that actuated his fellow patriots and his concern for the rights of the colonists. He retired to his estate at Urbana, Middlesex county, Va., in 1789, where he devoted himself to his books and correspondence. He was a member of the American Philosophical society; fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Harvard college in 1781. See "Life of Arthur Lee, with his Political and Literary Correspondence" by R. H. Lee (2 vols., 1829); Sparks's "Diplomatic Correspondence"; and many political and diplomatic papers preserved in the library of Harvard college. He died unmarried in Urbana, Va., Dec. 12, 1792.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Francis Lightfoot Lee, signer, was born at "Stratford," Westmoreland county, Va., Oct. 14, 1784; fourth son of Gov. Thomas and Hannah (Ludwell) Lee. He was educated at Stratford by the Rev. Mr. Craig, a Scotch clergyman. He became a member of the house of burgesses for Loudoun county, and signed the Westmoreland declaration against the stamp act with his three brothers in 1765. Upon his marriage to Rebecca, daughter of Col. John Taylor, of Richmond county, Va., in 1772, he made that county his home and was at once elected to represent it in the house of burgesses. He succeeded Col. Richard Bland as delegate to the Continental congress, Aug. 15, 1775, serving 1775-79. He signed the Declaration of Independence, assisted in preparing the Articles of Confederation and defended the rights of the States to the Newfoundland fisheries and to the free navigation of the Mississippi river. He retired from congress in the spring of 1779 and resumed his duties as master of his extensive estates and justice of the peace of Richmond county. He represented the county in the state legislature for one or two terms. See Sanderson's "Lives of the Signers." He died in Richmond county, Va., April 8, 1797.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor