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I have been requested many times to trace lineages back to General Light Horse Harry Lee or to Robert E. Lee. Since General Lee died on Cumberland Island at the Dungeness estate, Georgians tend to think there might be a link there. Also, a number of North Carolina families claim lineage to General Lee. The Lees of Virginia descend from King John of England, King Edward I of England, from King Jean de Brienne of Jerusalem, from King Edward III of England and from King Pedro I of Castile.
The emigrant to Virginia was Richard Henry Lee, christened on 22 Mar 1618 in Nordley Regis Cotoon, Shropshire, died 1 Mar 1664 on Dividing Creek in Northumberland County, buried in the family cemetery. He was married to Anna Constable Owen, christened 21 Dec 1622 in London, died 6 Oct 1706 on Dividing Creek. The Last Will and Testament of Colonel Richard Lee of London and Virginia, was probated in London on the 10 of January 1664/1665. The opening paragraph of the will states that he was about to embark on a voyage to Virginia. (There is evidence that he sailed to Virginia in 1659 with Mr. Gibbons). The closing paragraph of the will gives the sixth day of February in the 16th year of the Reign of Charles II, and in the year of our Lord, 1663. There is an old Hall bible which declares that Richard Lee died at Cobbs Hall on Dividing Creek.
Henry Lee (1691-1747), a son of Sir Richard Lee and his wife, Laetitia Corbin. Henry was born 1691 in Westmoreland County, Virginia and died there. The family plantation was established near Leesylvania. He was buried in Burnt Housefield cemetery located at the Lee Hall plantation in Virginia. He was married ca 1723/1724 to Mary Bland, a daughter of Richard Bland and his wife, Elizabeth (Randolph) Bland. Mary was born 21 Aug 1704 in Prince William County, Virginia and died 1764 in Westmoreland County.
Henry Lee, son of Henry and Mary (above), was born 1729 in Leesylvania, Westmoreland County, Virginia, died there in 1787; married 1 Dec 1753 in Gloucester County, Virginia to Lucy Grymes, a daughter of Charles Grymes and his wife Frances (Jennings) Grymes. Lucy was born 26 April 1734 in Richmond, Virginia and died 1792. This Henry Lee was buried on the old Lee estate which is now known as Arlington Cemetery in Washington, D. C. As an insult to General Robert Robert E. Lee, the last owner, the land was confiscated by the Federals after the War Between the States, and was established as a burial ground for soldiers. Robert E. Lee's home still stands atop the mountain overlooking the University of Virginia. Henry Lee was first cousin once removed to Richard Henry Lee, the sixth President of the Continental Congress. His mother was an aunt of the wife of Thomas Nelson, Jr., another Virginia Governor and his great-grandmother, Mary Bland, was a great-aunt of President Thomas Jefferson. Issue:
- Richard Bland Lee, born 31 Jul 1753 at Leesylvania, Virginia, died 12 Mar 1827 on Pointlick Creek in Madison County, Kentucky, buried at Arlington Cemetery in Washington, D. C.
- Henry (Light Horse Harry) Lee, born 29 Jan 1756 at Leesylvania, Virginia, died 25 Mar 1818 on Cumberland Island, Georgia while visiting the Dungeness plantation. He was married (1) to Matilda Ludwell Lee at Stratford Hall, his second cousin, a daughter of Philip Ludwell Lee, Sr. by whom he has three children before she died in 1790; and (2) in 1793 to Ann Hill Carter, a daughter of Charles Carter, at Shirley Plantation. Served as a General during the Revolutionary War where he received many distinctions; also served as Governor of Virginia and the representative to the U. S. Congress.
- Henry Lee (son of Henry and Matilda) was born 28 May 1787, died 30 Jan 1837.
- Robert Edward Lee (son of Henry and Anne) was born 19 Jan 1807, died 12 Oct 1870. Served as the Confederate General during the War Between the States. Robert E. Lee was the epitomy of good manners and southern charm; he always showed a loving concern for his friends and neighbors and for these reasons was forever memoralized by all southerners. He died as a result of insuries inflicted on him by a Democratic-Republican mob while defending a friend, Alexander Contee Hanson, who opposed the War of 1812. The wounds never healed. There is a handsome bust of him on his horse in the state capitol in Richmond, Virginia.
- Charles Lee (1758-1815).
- Mary Lee (1764-1827). Never married.
- Theodorick Lee, born 3 Sept 1766 in Virginia, died 10 April 1849.
- Anne Lee (1776-1857, married William Byrd.
