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How does a younger son, marginalized by primogeniture, forge America’s most formidable revolutionary dynasty, siring four of the greatest Founding Fathers and two signers of the Declaration of Independence? This is the epic saga of Thomas Lee, the father of the Founding Fathers, builder of Stratford Hall, and great frontier fortune builder.
Before his sons shook the foundations of the British Empire, a single man conquered the isolating stillness of the early Virginia wilderness. Born in 1690 at Machodoc plantation to Richard Lee II, Thomas taught himself the ancient classics by candlelight, cultivating an aggressive, unyielding genius for land, trade, and politics.
In 1711, at the remarkably raw age of twenty-one, he supplanted Robert “King” Carter, becoming the resident agent for Lady Fairfax’s five-million-acre Northern Neck Proprietary. For years, Thomas lived in the saddle, mapping critical river access and scouting the uncultivated frontier so he could patent prime territories for himself—including massive holdings near the Great Falls of the Potomac.
In 1722, he wed the aristocratic heiress Hannah Harrison Ludwell, anchoring his branch of the Lee Family of Virginia to the highest tier of Tidewater society. But the fragile peace of the colony was shattered on a bitter winter night in 1729 when a gang of transported convicts, whom Thomas had strictly punished as a local magistrate, set his Machadoc plantation manor house ablaze. The family narrowly escaped into the freezing night as their home, commercial stores, and cherished library were entirely reduced to cinders.
Rising from the ashes, Thomas—supported by the exceptional talents of his wife, Hannah—finished constructing his fortress-like brick masterpiece upon the Potomac cliffs: Stratford Hall. While Hannah directed this flourishing plantation and center of trade, Thomas ascended to the apex of colonial power, serving in the House of Burgesses before being appointed to the elite, life-appointed Governor’s Council.
He then became one of the great men pushing expansion to the West. In 1744, he negotiated the historic Treaty of Lancaster with the Six Nations and organized the Ohio Company, boldly claiming a continental empire for the British Crown. By 1749, he reached the zenith of colonial politics as Acting Governor of Virginia. He died in 1750, leaving behind a vast estate and six sons whose inherited defiance would ultimately ignite the American Revolution.
This is the tale of how one man’s relentless ambition laid the physical, financial, and political foundations of a republic.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Thomas Lee of Stratford Hall: Father of the Founding Fathers
1:44 Thomas Lee’s Early Life as a Younger Son
6:15 How Thomas Lee Became the Agent for the Fairfax Proprietorship, and Used It to Build a Fortune
15:26 Thomas Lee’s Marriage to Hannah Ludwell Lee
17:08 Fire and Ruin: The Convicts Cause Damage
22:03 Stratford Hall: Building a Plantation
33:36 Thomas Lee’s Rise to the Top of Virginia Politics
36:45 Thomas Lee’s Western Empire Vision: The Treaty of Lancaster and the Ohio Company
42:19 The First Virginian: Thomas Lee Becomes Acting Governor of Virginia
44:11 His Final Years and Legacy
Sources Referenced in this Episode:
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Nagel, Paul C.: The Lees of Virginia: Seven Generations of an American Dynasty, https://amzn.to/4uCI6o9
Hendrick, Burton J.: The Lees of Virginia, https://amzn.to/4uCN4BF
Lee, Cazenove G. Jr.: Lee Chronicle: Studies of the Early Generations of the Lees, https://amzn.to/4vGzbDe
Dowdey, Clifford: The Virginia Dynasties, https://amzn.to/4vlqoqN
Dowdey, Clifford: The Golden Age, https://amzn.to/3QbGNi4
Dowdey, Clifford: The Great Plantation, https://amzn.to/4gdOxKR
Wright, Louis B.: The First Gentlemen of Virginia, https://amzn.to/4ekuR5z
McGaughy, J. Kent: Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, https://amzn.to/4ewtGA4
Burt, Nathaniel: First Families: The Making of an American Aristocracy, https://amzn.to/3Sopnj2
Evans, Emory G.: A “Topping People”: The Rise and Decline of Virginia’s Old Political Elite, 1680-1790, https://amzn.to/43UPMaK
Morton, Richard L.: Colonial Virginia VOLUME II Westward Expansion and Prelude to Revolution, 1710-1763, https://amzn.to/4vynVJw
Potts, Louis W.: Arthur Lee: A Virtuous Revolutionary, https://amzn.to/4vpFLOF
Image credits:
Lee Family Coat of Arms based on Glasshouse using elements by Sodacan, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Theodor de Bry, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
By MamaGeek at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4255589
By I, MamaGeek, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2523197
By Mobilus In Mobili - https://www.flickr.com/photos/mobili/25412267772/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57303158
By Codex Sinaiticus at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57703516
By Ron Cogswell - The Governor’s Palace -- Williamsburg (VA) September 2012, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47502435
Transcript
