LEE, REV. SAMUEL, D.D., was born May 14, 1783, at Longnar, a village in Shropshire, about eighteen miles from Shrewsbury. He received the rudiments of education at a charity-school in that village, where at the age of twelve years he was apprenticed to a carpenter and joiner. At the age of seventeen he formed a determination to learn the Latin language, and though he had at first only six shillings a week, and afterwards seven, to subsist on, he contrived to buy rudimentary books and then classical writers, and by the end of his apprenticeship had accomplished his purpose. He then determined to learn the Greek, and this he also accomplished. The Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syriac languages were next mastered. When in his twenty-fifth year he removed into Worcestershire to superintend on the part of his employer the repairing of a large house, in which however a fire broke out, when he lost all his tools, and was reduced to extreme poverty.
In the meantime the Rev. Archdeacon Corbctt had heard of his studious habits, saw him at Longnor, lent him books, and assisted him iu pronunciation. In the course of a few months he acquired the Arabic and Persian languages, and afterwards a tolerable knowledge of French, German, and Italian. For two or three years previously to 1813 Mr. Lee held the mastership of Bowdler's foundation school in Shrewsbury.
In 1813 he left Shrewsbury, and obtained an engagement with the Church Missionary Society. In the same year he entered himself of Queen's College, Cambridge, and in 1817 took his degree of B.A. Having received ordination, he preached in the following year at Shrewsbury a sermon in aid of the funds of the Shropshire Auxiliary Bible Society.
On the 11th of March 1819 Mr. Lee was elected Arabic Professor of the University of Cambridge, but not having been at college the time requisite for taking his degree of M.A. (which was necessary before he took the chair), a grace passed the senate to request the Prince-Regent to grant a mandamus, which was obtained accordingly. In 1822 the University of Halle conferred on him, without solicitation, the degree of D.D. In 1823 he was appointed chaplain to the jail at Cambridge, and in 1825 was presented to the rectory of Bilton with Harrowgate. He took the degree of B.A. in 1827, and in 1831 was elected Regius Professor of Hebrew to the University of Cambridge, and with it obtained the accompanying canonry in the cathedral of Bristol. The degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by the University of Cambridge in 1833. He was afterwards presented to the rectory of Barley in Hertfordshire. He died on the 16th of December, 1852, at Barley rectory. He was twice married.
Among the more important of Dr. Lee's works are the following :— Hebrew Grammar,' 1830; ' Travels of John Batuta, translated from the Arabic,' 1833; 'The Book of Job, translated from the original Hebrew,' 1837; 'Hebrew, Chaldaic, and English Lexicon,' 1840; 'An Inquiry into the Nature, Progress, and End of Prophecy,' 8vo, Cam bridge, 1849 ; ' The Events and Times of the Visions of Daniel and St.
John, investigated, identified, and determined,' 8vo, London, 1851. Besides these works, Dr. Lee published several pamphlets on subjects of religious controversy, sermons, and contributions to periodical literature.