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This is the story of the dynast who founded the Lee Family of Virginia: Richard Lee I, also known as Richard Lee the Emigrant. In it we tell the story of his rise in Virginia, from his start as a Clerk of the Quarter Court and Indian trader to his time as great landed proprietor and Secretary of State of Virginia.
We discuss his marriage to Anne Constable, how he accumulated landed wealth on a massive scale, and how he survived the Commonwealth and the Restoration. It’s an exciting tale of frontier adventure, family triumph, and a great man whose bravery shaped America more than perhaps any other, through his descendants.
0:00 Arrival in Jamestown
3:23 The Lee Family: Cavaliers, Merchants, or Both?
8:13 Richard Lee Becomes a Merchant, and Heads to Virginia
11:53 How Richard Lee Got Ahead: Governor Francis Wyatt
15:31 Richard Marries Anne Constable
17:51 Lee Becomes a Leader of Virginia
25:33 Tobacco, Trade, and Indentures: How Richard Lee Built the Lee Family Fortune, Despite Indian Attacks
35:27 Richard Lee’s Royal Mission to Breda
40:16 How Lee the Cavalier Survived the Commonwealth and Quietly Built a Fortune
45:00 The Stuart Restoration, and Lee Returns to Virginia
48:36 How Richard Lee I Ensured the Lees Would Become Famous
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
Evans, Emory G.: A “Topping People”: The Rise and Decline of Virginia’s Old Political Elite, 1680-1790, https://amzn.to/4xs9gRt
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
Fischer, David Hackett: Albion’s Seed, https://amzn.to/4gayayG
Wright, Louis B.: The First Gentlemen of Virginia, https://amzn.to/4ekuR5z
Image credits:
Coton Hall north of Birdsgreen in Shropshire by Roger D Kidd, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Glasshouse using elements by Sodacan, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Transcript
