Sir George Lee, (''c.'' 1700 – 18 December 1758) was an English Whig politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

for 25 years from 1733 to 1758.

Life

Lee was fifth son of

Sir Thomas Lee, 2nd Baronet Sir Thomas Lee, 2nd Baronet (ca. 1661 – 13 August 1702) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1689 to 1699. Lee was the son of Sir Thomas Lee, 1st Baronet of Hartwell and his wife Anne Davis, daughter of Sir John Da ...

, who had married Alice Hopkins, daughter and coheiress of Thomas Hopkins, of London. His elder brother was Sir William Lee, the judge. He entered

Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refounded ...

in 1716, but migrated to

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

, where he matriculated on 4 April 1720. He took the degrees of

B.C.L. Bachelor of Civil Law (abbreviated BCL, or B.C.L.; la, Baccalaureus Civilis Legis) is the name of various degrees in law conferred by English-language universities. The BCL originated as a postgraduate degree in the universities of University of O ...

in 1724 and D.C.L. in 1729. On 23 October 1729 he was admitted advocate at

Doctors' Commons Doctors' Commons, also called the College of Civilians, was a society of lawyers practising civil (as opposed to common) law in London, namely ecclesiastical and admiralty law. Like the Inns of Court of the common lawyers, the society had buildi ...

and soon obtained a practice. Lee was returned as Whig

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

Brackley Brackley is a market town and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England, bordering Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, from Oxford and from Northampton. Historically a market town based on the wool and lace trade, it was built on the inters ...

by the Duke of Bridgwater at a by-election on 25 January 1733. He was returned unopposed at the

1741 British general election The 1741 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 9th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. The election saw suppo ...

but resigned the seat on appointment to office in March 1742 and was the returned as MP for

Devizes Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman architecture, Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-century ...

at a by-election on 23 July 1742. At the

1747 British general election The 1747 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 10th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. The election saw Henr ...

he was returned instead as MP for

Liskeard Liskeard ( ; kw, Lyskerrys) is a small ancient stannary and market town in south-east Cornwall, South West England. It is situated approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of Plymouth, west of the Devon border, and 12 miles (20 km) eas ...

. At the

1754 British general election The 1754 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 11th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. Owing to the exten ...

, he was returned unopposed as MP for Launceston by his brother-in-law,

Humphry Morice Humphry Morice may refer to: * Humphry Morice (Governor of the Bank of England) (c. 1671 – 1731), British merchant * Humphry Morice (MP for Launceston) Humphry Morice (1723 – 18 October 1785) was a Whig Member of Parliament for the Cornish ...

. From 1742 to 1744, Lee was a

Lord of the Admiralty This is a list of Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty (incomplete before the Restoration, 1660). The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty were the members of The Board of Admiralty, which exercised the office of Lord High Admiral when it was n ...

, and knighted and sworn as a

Privy Councillor A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

in 1752. From 1751 to 1757 he was treasurer to Augusta, Princess of Wales. In 1757, Lee resigned his position as treasurer to the princess dowager in consequence of the rise into favour of

Lord Bute John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, (; 25 May 1713 – 10 March 1792), styled Lord Mount Stuart between 1713 and 1723, was a British nobleman who served as the 7th Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1762 to 1763 under George III. He was arguabl ...

, but his defection attracted little notice, as the princess's adherents had for some time slackened in their opposition to the ministry. When the

Duke of Newcastle Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne was a title that was created three times, once in the Peerage of England and twice in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first grant of the title was made in 1665 to William Cavendish, 1st Marquess of Newcastle u ...

proposed to form an administration, with the exclusion of Pitt from office, Lee reluctantly agreed to be

Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...

but the duke, almost at once and without the least notice to those who had agreed to join him, abandoned his scheme. On 18 December, Lee died suddenly at his house in St. James's Square, London, and was buried on 28 December in the family vault underneath the east end of Hartwell Church, Buckinghamshire.

Family

He married, on 5 June 1742, Judith, the second daughter of Humphry Morice of Werrington, near Launceston, Cornwall, by his wife, a daughter of Thomas Sandys of London. She died on 19 July 1743, aged 33, and was buried on 1 August in the vault of the Lee family in Hartwell Church. Sir George died without issue, and left all his fortune to his nephew,

Sir William Lee, 4th baronet ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

Notes

References

External links

* Th
Sir George Lee Papers
are available for research use at the

Historical Society of Pennsylvania The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a long-established research facility, based in Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chronicles, maps, press reports and v ...

.
Parliamentary Archives, Papers of Sir George Lee (1700–1758)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, George 1700s births 1758 deaths Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for constituencies in Cornwall British MPs 1727–1734 British MPs 1734–1741 British MPs 1741–1747 British MPs 1747–1754 British MPs 1754–1761 Knights Bachelor Lords of the Admiralty Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain Younger sons of baronets