LEE FAMILY, The, a family of Virginia, some of whose members have been conspicuous in public affairs at almost every stage of Ameri can history.' Among all the eminent names of the South there is none that outranks this in the number or prominence of those who repre sent it in the records of the nation. Sprung from a cavalier line of old and distinguished English stock, the Virginia Lees have continued in the New World that order of Old-World aristocracy — an aristocracy of character and culture, of honor and of public service — which has legitimated itself under the broadening con ditions of democratic development, and to which, as well as to the plainer but not less masterful middle-class English element that elsewhere entered into the making of the re public, democracy in the American Common wealth owes its most essential traits. That Richard Lee who, during the reign of Charles I, brought his large household to Virginia and himself became the first of this illustrious line in America, brought also to the Northern Neck in Northumberland County, where he settled, an English yeoman's sturdiness, raised and enlightened and nowise debilitated by the re finements of gentility. A stout partisan of the Stuart cause, he supported Sir William Berke ley (q.v.) in his resistance to Cromwell's policy, and through this attitude the colonists, threat ened by the Protector's fleet, forced its com mander into a treaty styling the colony an independent dominion. Lee is said to have joined successfully with Berkeley in having Charles II proclaimed king in Virginia nearly two years earlier than his final coronation in London. Richard Lee's son, Richard, and the second Richard's third son, Thomas, were leaders in the colony, Thomas dying just as his governor's commission was made out. By his wife, Hannah Lndwell, he had five sons, who became distinguished for public and patri otic acts. Of these, Richard Henry Lee (q.v.), by reason of the diversity and singular effi ciency of his services, rendered for many years before the Revolution, during that struggle and for 10 years afterward, to Virginia and all the colonies and later States, stands among the pre-eminent figures of his day. The steps pre liminary to the Declaration of Independence can never be recalled without remembrance of him as mover of the resolutions which led to its adoption in the Continental Congress. The
address to the people of Great Britain, which he wrote, is perhaps surpassed in weight and loftiness of spirit by no American state paper. His brother, Francis Lightfoot Lee (q.v.), not only was Qne of the signers of the Declaration, but also made liberal sacrifices for the patriot cause, all the more to be remembered to his honor when it is considered that by temper and education he was fitted rather for the occupa tions of a student, and for social elegancies, than for the turmoil of politics and the trage dies of war. Arthur Lee (q.v.), youngest son of Thomas, was educated in two professions, medicine and law, and distinguished himself by public services both at home and abroad. As representative of the colonies in Europe dur ing the Revolution, he displayed abilities as a man of learning, versatility and political saga city, which he applied in ways highly useful to his country in critical times. William Lee (q.v.), another of the sons of Thomas, also repre sented the United States in Europe at that period, with less distinction than others of this family attained, but not without some exhibition of their unusual qualities. The fame of Henry Lee (q.v.), the *Light Horse Harry* of the Revolution, unique in several respects, is endur ing by reason of his political and military serv ices, while his name is endeared to the Ameri can people for his noble eulogy of Washington. As first cousin of Richard Henry Lee and of Arthur Lee, his rights are as valid as theirs in the name to which he adds a lustre in return for that it sheds on him. His son, Robert Edward Lee (q.v.), not only stands as a con nector of the two great epochs of his country's history — the Revolutionary period and that of the Civil War—but in his life and deeds, he worthily perpetuated the fame of the great family whose name he bore, whose blood, whose spirit, whose traditions he inherited. His nephew, Fitzhugh Lee (q.v.), whose name may fittingly close this sketch, was one of those Americans who, in civil and in military life, proved themselves efficient factors in the final restoration of the Union.