(1613- 1664)
Our spotlighted ancestor for the week
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A quick 'descendancy list' of how we Archibald’s are related to this immigrant to the Americas, who has been the forefather of many famous men who were instrumental in the formation of the United States:
- Richard Lee (1613- 1664) married Anne Owen Constable (1615-1706), their son (below)
- Capt. Charles C. Lee Sr. (1656-1701) married Elizabeth Medstand (1654-1700), their son (below)
- Thomas John Lee (1679-1733) married Elizabeth Keene (1701-1759), their son (below)
- John Lee (1720-1787) married Margaret Howard (1726-1755), their son (below)
- Col. Greenberry Lee (1750-1784) married Elizabeth Few (1752- ?), their son (below)
- John Lee (1775-1825) married Suzanna Edmonds Short (1771- 1844), their daughter (below)
- Martha Hanna (Anna?) Lee (1819-1875) married William H. Nix (1815-1875), their son (below)
- Thomas (Lon) Leonidas Nix (1849-1924) married Vilona Ara Hart (1859-1937), their daughter (below)
- Effie Bertie Nix (1882-1961) married Thomas John Archibald Jr. (1873-1949), their son (below)
- Thomas Ernest Archibald (1932-2010) married Bernice Catherine Collingwood, their daughter & son (below)
- Cathy Jo Archibald (1954- ) and Thomas Earl Archibald (1962- ) writers of this blog (and siblings).
- You can use this list to figure out your relationship to the Lee family.
Richard Lee
DOB: 22 Mar 1613 in Nordley Regis, Coton, Shropshire, England Christened: 22 Mar 1618
DOD: 24 pr 1664 in Cobbs Hall, Northumberland, Virginia
Buried: Jan 1665 in Old Lee Graveyard at Cobbs Hall, Northumberland County, Virginia
The Lee family played a big part of the founding of the new country in North America, the United States of America. Their history started 200 years before our country became an independent nation. The Lee family produced a number of Revolutionary and Civil War generals and officers, politicians, and statesmen. Colonel Richard Lee, Secretary of the Colony of Virginia and presumably a Counselor to King Charles, was the progenitor of the Virginia Lees and was himself descended from the Coton branch of the Lees of Shropshire. Other notable descendants were Richard Henry Lee and Francis ‘Lightfoot’ Lee, both signers of the Declaration of Independence and Zachary Taylor (12th president of the United States), Light Horse Harry Lee of Revolutionary War fame and governor of Virginia, and his son General Robert Edward Lee of the Confederate States of America. Down through the years there have been many doctors, lawyers, Judges and ministers, and other substantial men and women. (!) And, WE, my dear cousins, are a part of this illustrious family.
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Richard Lee was the first of this Lee family to settle in Virginia in 1640. His education was most likely in law, for although he went to Virginia to become Clerk of the Quarter Court, in just three years he was appointed Attorney General of Virginia.
The first Royal Governor of Virginia (appointed by the King of England) was Sir Francis Wyatt. It was during Wyatt's second term in America that he brought from England, with his family, a young lady named Anne Constable.
The fact that Anne was sent as a ward of the King to the America's with such prominence shows her family was of uncommon origins. It is believed that it is because of Anne's family connections that Richard Lee climbed the political ladder so rapidly.
Perhaps because of her father's connections, Anne became a ward of Sir John Thoroughgood, a personal attendant upon King Charles I. This affiliation would have made it easy for her to know the family of Sir Francis Wyatt and to accompany them to North America. She sailed to America on the same ship as her husband to be. They were married in 1641 at Jamestown, Virginia. Anne's background and early associations meant that Richard Lee moved socially upward when she took him as husband.
Richard and Anne may have become interested in one another during their long voyage from England to Virginia, and they were definitely exposed to one another in the society of Jamestown. In 1641 when they married, Governor Wyatt gave the bride away, presumably in the new brick church at Jamestown.
timeline
1646- Richard Lee served as Sheriff of York County, Virginia
1647- Richard Lee served as Burgess of York County, Virginia
1649-Richard Lee succeeded Richard Kemp as Secretary of State becoming the principle lieutenant of Sir William Berkley. At this time he was granted the title of Colonel.
It was about this time that Col. Richard Lee was sent to perform an official duty, meeting with King Charles II, whom he met at Breda in the Netherlands. During this trip Richard Lee personally freighted a Dutch Ship and brought back cargo to Virginia. His cargo included immigrants, of which 38 people were unable to pay their passage. They became his indentured servants for a number of years, and he sold his rights to their "indentureship", and used this money to buy three land grants in 1651, for 500 acres adjoining War Captain's Neck and 500 acres on Poropotank Creek in Northumberland County, Virginia. [See Land Patent Book #2, pp. 314-338, and Book #4. pp. 221, 375.]
1650-Richard Lee had 2400 acres in the new County of Gloucester. I
1652-Richard Lee was the owner of a ship, trading between England and Virginia.
1653-He obtained a commercial warehouse; which must have been very convenient for his export/import business.
1661-Richard Lee took out a patent for 4000 acres in November. One tract of 1000 acres was the site of Mount Vernon, and another 2000 acres was on the south shore of Hunting Creek, opposite of the site of Alexandria.[Did you notice that our ancestor owned Mt. Vernon before it became the home of George Washington??]
1664-Col. Richard Lee died at the height of his career, at the age of 51.
1665- In January. His will was probated in London. The executors to his will were Thomas Griffith, John Lockey, both London merchants, and his sons, John Lee and Richard Lee II.
Anne Constable Owen:
DOD: 21 Feb 1615 in Westminster, Middlesex, , England
Christened: 21 Feb 1622 in London, London, England
(She remarried after Richard Lee’s death in 1664 to Edmund Lister).
Children of Richard and Anne (Constable) Lee
1) John Lee
DOB: 1643 in Stratford Hall, Lee, Virginia, American continent.
DOD: 22 Mar 1673 (age 31) in Surry, Surry, Virginia, United States
John was 22 years old when his father died in 1664. He inherited the Machodoc plantation of 2000 acres, with ten English servants, and ten Negroes and three islands in Chesapeake Bay. As heir-at-law he also inherited 4700 additional acres.
John Lee served as Militia Captain, Justice, Sheriff, and Burgess for Westmoreland County, Virginia.
He never married and died at the age of 31 years.
2) Richard Lee
DOB: 1646 at Paradise (the plantation) in Gloucester county, Virginia
DOD: 12 Mar 1714 at Mt. Pleasant in Westmoreland County, Virginia
Richard Lee was eighteen when his father died 1664; he inherited Paradise plantation of 1350 acres. After his graduation from Oxford he went there to live, but at his brother, John Lee's death, he inherited John's lands, and moved to his plantation called Machodoc.
He married Letitia Corbin, the daughter of his neighbor, the Councilor, Henry Corbin at Machodoc. Both Richard and Letitia are buried at the Burnt House Cemetery near Hague in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
Their four sons-Richard, Philip, Thomas, and Henry- became the progenitors of the Mount Pleasant, Maryland, Stratford, and Lee Hall branches of the family. Their only daughter, Ann, married William Fitzhugh.
Some of the important men in history and how they are related to us:
Our direct ancestor's brother, Richard had a son, Thomas (see above) who was the father of Richard Henry Lee,who on 7 Jun 1776, rose in the Continental Congress and moved:
“That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great England is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”
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Another son, Henry Lee married Mary Bland, the daughter of Richard Bland; and their youngest son Henry, legend has it, won the hand of the “Lowland Beauty”, Lucy Grimes away from her cousin and his friend, George Washington. They remained close friends throughout their lives. The descendants of Henry and Lucy Lee are known as the Leesylvania Line of the family. (we are not a part of this line).
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Henry Lee, the son of Henry and Lucy Lee, earned the nickname Light Horse Harry during the Revolutionary War, and this Harry Lee is the father of Robert E. Lee.
3) Francis Lee
DOB: 1648
DOD: 1714 in England
Buried: 19 Nov 1714
He was sixteen in 1664 when his father died. He inherited the 750 acre plantation on York River. He became a London merchant.
(She was the daughter of Henry Corbin and Alice Eltonhead).
DOB: 1657 in Stratfordshire, England
Christened: 1657 in Christ Church, Middlesex, Virginia
DOD: 6 Oct 1706 in Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland County, Virginia.
Buried: Aft 6 Oct 1706 in "Burnt House Field", Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland, Virginia.
4) Capt. William C. Lee
DOB: 1651 in Dividing Creek, Northumberland Co, VA
DOD: Sep 1696 in Dividing Creek, Northumberland, VA.
DOD: Sep 1696 in Dividing Creek, Northumberland, VA.
William Lee was fourteen years of age when his father died in 1664;
He received 500 acres the Bishop's Neck tract, and the purchased land in Maryland.
He married Mary Waddy; Abt 1691
5) Twin to William – unknown name- drowned at a young age
6) Hancock Lee
DOB: 1652 in Dividing Creeks, Northumberland, Virginia
DOD: 25 May 1709 in Ditchley, Northumberland County, Virginia.
Hancock Lee was twelve when his father died. He inherited 800 acres, which became the "Ditchley" estate.
7) Elizabeth (Betsy) Lee (twin)
(who later married Leonard Howison)
DOB: 1654
DOD: 1714
DOD: 1714
8) Ann Lee (twin)
(who became the wife of Thomas Youell)
DOB: 1654
DOD: 1701
DOD: 1701
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Upon the death of Richard Lee, the immigrant, The Stratford estate in Essex County, England was sold and the proceeds were divided between the two daughters, Betsy Lee, and Ann Lee who were eleven when their father died in 1664.
The youngest five children lived with their mother, Anne (Constable) Lee, who was left their home on Dividing Creek with all of its lands, also five negroes "during her widowhood and no longer", by her husband's will. (He knew that she would soon remarry).
9) Charles Lee - Our DIRECT LINE
DOB: 21 May, 1656 in Cobbs Hall at Dividing Creek, Northumberland County, Virginia
Christening: 1657 Stratford, Langston, England
DOD: 17 Dec 170l in Cobbs Hall, Northumberland County, Virginia Colony
Burial: 1701 Old Lee Graveyard At, Cobbs Hall, Northumberland County, Virginia
Charles was the youngest child. He was eight in 1664 when his father died. He inherited the old homestead of 600 acres, which became the "Cobb's Hall" estate. He was a Captain in the Colonial Militia, Northumberland County, Virginia; and Justice from 1687 to 1699.
[To see how we are descended from Charles Lee, look at the descendancy list at the beginning of this article].
Cobb's Hall
I hope that you are getting a sense of our ancestry, and what a wonderful family lineage we share. We come from some of the very people who made our country a free nation. We can be proud of our forebears and be thankful that not only are we here, but we are living in the land of the free which they helped to create.
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[To see how we are descended from Charles Lee, look at the descendancy list at the beginning of this article].
Cobb's Hall
I hope that you are getting a sense of our ancestry, and what a wonderful family lineage we share. We come from some of the very people who made our country a free nation. We can be proud of our forebears and be thankful that not only are we here, but we are living in the land of the free which they helped to create.
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