Arthur Lee (20 December 1740 – 12 December 1792) was a physician and opponent of slavery in colonial Virginia in North America who served as an American diplomat during the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
. He helped negotiate and signed the 1778
Treaty of Alliance with France, along with
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
and
Silas Deane
Silas Deane (September 23, 1789) was an American merchant, politician, and diplomat, and a supporter of American independence. Deane served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he signed the Continental Association, and then became the ...
, which allied France and the United States in fighting the war.
Lee was educated in medicine and law at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
and in London, respectively. After passing the bar, he practiced law in London for several years. He stayed in London during the Revolutionary War, representing the colonies to Britain and France and also serving as an American spy to track their activities. After his return to Virginia, he served as a delegate to the Continental Congress.
Life
Born at
Stratford Hall, Virginia, Arthur Lee was the youngest son of Hon.
Thomas Lee (1690–1750) and
Hannah Harrison Ludwell
Hannah Harrison Ludwell Lee (December 5, 1701 – January 25, 1750) was an American colonial heiress and the wife of Colonel Thomas Lee. A granddaughter of Philip Ludwell and Benjamin Harrison II, she was a prominent figure within the American ge ...
(1701–1750). Three of his five surviving elder brothers,
Richard Henry Lee
Richard Henry Lee (January 20, 1732June 19, 1794) was an American statesman and Founding Father from Virginia, best known for the June 1776 Lee Resolution, the motion in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies' independence from ...
(1732–1794),
Francis Lightfoot Lee (1734–1797) and
William Lee (1739–1795), also became Revolutionary-era diplomats.
He attended
Eton College
Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...
in England and studied medicine at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
, where he graduated in 1764. The title description of his thesis is: Dissertatio medica inauguralis, de cortice peruviano: quam ... ex auctoritate ... Gulielmi Robertson ... Academiae Edinburgenae praefecti ... pro gradu doctoratus ... eruditorum examini subjicit, Arthur Lee, Virginiensis. Ad diem septembris
764
__NOTOC__
Year 764 ( DCCLXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 764 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era b ...
... – Edinburgi : in aedibus A. Donaldson et J. Reid, MDCCLXIV. – 2 p. l., 47 p. ; 20 cm. on 13 May 1765 he matriculated at the
University of Leiden
Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...
in the Netherlands.
During the latter period, Lee wrote in 1764, "An Essay in Vindication of the Continental Colonies of America," one of his more noted works. He opposed the
Townshend Acts
The Townshend Acts () or Townshend Duties, were a series of British acts of Parliament passed during 1767 and 1768 introducing a series of taxes and regulations to fund administration of the British colonies in America. They are named after the ...
and became a major proponent of American resistance to the British. After this work, he was granted membership to the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
through his election in 1768.
He studied law in London, passing the bar, and practising there from 1770 to 1776.
During this time in London, Lee wrote many influential pamphlets and essays opposing slavery and British continental policies. He lived at
Poland Street
Poland Street is a street in the Soho district of the City of Westminster, London. It runs from Oxford Street in the north to Broadwick Street in the south. It was named after the "King of Poland" pub, which was renamed in honour of Poland's ...
with
Paul Wentworth (counsellor) for five years.
In 1770, Lee in London was named as the Massachusetts correspondent to Britain and France. He began corresponding with
Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams ( – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and ...
, which began a long friendship. They probably did not meet personally until sometime after 1780. Lee met
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
while he was in London, where Franklin was negotiating on behalf of Pennsylvania interests. Lee criticized Franklin's extravagant lifestyle and told Sam Adams he would never be a good negotiator between a free people and a tyrant.
In May 1776, he was a guest at the dinner organized by
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 (New Style, N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of his friend and older contemporary the Englis ...
that brought together
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...
, an ardent opponent of the American colonists' cause, and
John Wilkes
John Wilkes (17 October 1725 – 26 December 1797) was an English radical journalist and politician, as well as a magistrate, essayist and soldier. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fo ...
, one of its most prominent British supporters.
During the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
, the
Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. ...
appointed Lee as its envoy to Spain and
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
, but his success was at best mixed.
In November 1775, the committee of secret correspondence of the
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a late-18th-century meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolutionary War. The Congress was creating a new country it first named "United Colonies" and in 1 ...
asked Lee to become its confidential correspondent in London, where during his diplomatic career he frequently aired suspicions upon the various men who had appointed him along with some of his colleges. Arguably Lee was one of America's first spies. He gathered information in France and Britain. He also successfully identified
Edward Bancroft, secretary to the American legation in Paris, as a British spy.
Later, in Paris, after Lee helped negotiate the
Treaty of Alliance (1778)
The Treaty of Alliance (french: traité d'alliance (1778)), also known as the Franco-American Treaty, was a defensive alliance between the Kingdom of France and the United States formed amid the American Revolutionary War with Great Britain. ...
with France, he fell out with
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
and
Silas Deane
Silas Deane (September 23, 1789) was an American merchant, politician, and diplomat, and a supporter of American independence. Deane served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he signed the Continental Association, and then became the ...
. He persuaded Congress to recall Deane to America, but he was himself recalled soon afterward. Have earned a reputation of being overly suspicious where, Franklin, in a letter of April 3, 1778 chided him in that if he let these feelings dominate his life that he would end up insane.
National Archives: Franklin to Lee, April 3, 1778
/ref>
After Lee returned to Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
, the state in 1782 sent him as a delegate to the Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. ...
. The same year he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
.
In 1790, Arthur Lee purchased Lansdowne Lansdowne or Lansdown may refer to:
People
* Lansdown Guilding (1797–1831), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines naturalist and engraver
*Fenwick Lansdowne (1937–2008), Canadian wildlife artist
* George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne (1666–1735) ...
from Robert Wormeley III. This fine mansion still stands in Urbanna
Urbanna is a town in Middlesex County, Virginia, United States. Urbanna means “City of Anne” and was named in honor of England's Queen Anne. The population was 476 at the 2010 census.
Geography
Urbanna is located at (37.637796, −76 ...
, a small waterfront town on Virginia's Middle Peninsula
The Middle Peninsula is the second of three large peninsulas on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the Middle Peninsula was home to 92,886 people. It lies between the Northern Neck and ...
. It is presently a private residence. Lee died at Urbanna in 1792 and was buried in the rear garden with no stone.[ He never married and had no children. Plans to reinter him at Stratford Hall never came about. Lansdowne was listed on the ]National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1974.
Ancestry
Arthur Lee was the son of Colonel Thomas Lee, Hon. (1690–1750) of Stratford Hall Plantation, Westmoreland County, Virginia
Westmoreland County is a county located in the Northern Neck of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population sits at 18,477. Its county seat is Montross.
History
As originally established by the Virginia colony's ...
. Thomas married Hannah Harrison Ludwell
Hannah Harrison Ludwell Lee (December 5, 1701 – January 25, 1750) was an American colonial heiress and the wife of Colonel Thomas Lee. A granddaughter of Philip Ludwell and Benjamin Harrison II, she was a prominent figure within the American ge ...
(1701–1750), the daughter of Colonel Philip Ludwell II (1672–1726) of Green Spring Plantation
Green Spring Plantation in James City County about west of Williamsburg, was the 17th century plantation of one of the more popular governors of Colonial Virginia in North America, Sir William Berkeley, and his wife, Frances Culpeper Berkel ...
, and Hannah Harrison (1679–1731).
Arthur's father, Thomas, was the son of Colonel Richard Lee II
Colonel Richard Lee II ( – ) was an American planter, politician and military officer from Northumberland County, Virginia who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and was captured during Bacon's Rebellion.
Early life
Bor ...
, Esq., known as "Richard the Scholar" (1647–1715) and Laetitia Corbin (c. 1657 – 1706). Richard Lee II, was the son of Col. Richard Lee I
Richard Lee I (1618 – 1 March 1664) (later nicknamed "The Immigrant") was the first member of the Lee family to live in America (although he also considered himself an English gentleman). Poor when he arrived in Virginia in 1639 on a ship w ...
, Esq., known as "The Immigrant" (1618–1664) and Anne Constable (c. 1621 – 1666).
Arthur's paternal grandmother, Laetitia, was the daughter of the Lees' neighbor and councillor (attorney), Hon. Henry Corbin, Sr. (1629–1676) and Alice (Eltonhead) Burnham (c. 1627 – 1684).
Arthur's paternal great-grandmother, Anne, was the daughter of Thomas Constable; she became a ward of Sir John Thoroughgood.
References
Sources
*
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
''The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution'', published by an Act of Congress in 1818 and edited by Jared Sparks, includes much correspondence by and to Arthur Lee
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Arthur
1740 births
1792 deaths
Ambassadors of the United States to France
Continental Congressmen from Virginia
18th-century American politicians
Arthur
Arthur is a common male given name of Brittonic languages, Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. An ...
American people of English descent
American abolitionists
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellows of the Royal Society
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Leiden University alumni
People from Urbanna, Virginia