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Who was the real driving force behind the famous Lee Family of Virginia’s transition into being a dynasty? While Colonel Richard Lee “The Emigrant” built a staggering transatlantic shipping and tobacco empire involving 15,000 acres of land, multiple ships, and a London headquarters, the true test of whether the family could sink its roots deep in Virginia belonged to the children he left behind in the wild country of Virginia’s Northern Neck.
In this third episode about the Lee family, we investigate the dramatic, often-overlooked history of the second generation of that dynasty that later proved so influential in American history, particularly during the American Revolution. We track the contrasting lives of the sons of Richard Lee I: John Lee, the Oxford-educated “Golden Boy” who created America’s very first country club before dying young; Francis Lee, the calculating London merchant who built a great fortune but fell out of the family; and the central patriarch, Richard Lee II—”The Scholar in the Wilderness”.
Richard Lee II was a pious and private man who much preferred his library of 300 books to the chaos of colonial politics and fortune building. Yet, following his brother’s sudden death, he was dragged from his study to lead the family through the bloodiest upheavals in early American history—enduring a harrowing imprisonment during Bacon’s Rebellion and an almost career-ending standoff in the Glorious Revolution, before later working with the Fairfax family to bring order and aristocracy to the Northern Neck. Finally, we discuss how feuding over the poorly written will of his father helped him set up the third generation of Lees for success, and how Richard II’s legacy as the unwilling but dutiful patriarch of the Lees of Virginia ought be considered and remembered.
Watch it free here:
CHAPTERS:
0:00 The Death of Richard Lee I
1:37 The Lee Family’s Second Generation
6:07 John Lee, the Golden Son
11:21 Francis Lee: Critical Merchant Across the Atlantic
15:22 “The Scholar”: Richard Lee II Takes Charge
22:07 The Cousinage: Richard Lee’s Marriage Into the Corbin Family
26:10 How Richard Lee II Stood Down Bacon’s Rebellion
33:10 Richard Lee II’s Glorious Revolution Crisis
37:18 The Dynasty Solidifies: Fighting for Family Lands
43:30 The Lee Family of Virginia: Richard Lee II’s Lasting 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
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
Transcript:
