William Lea (May 17, 1805 – December 28, 1876) was a member of a prominent flour milling family in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington (Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...

, who was largely responsible for the development of the Brandywine Mills to their place of importance. Lea was born to Thomas Lea (1757-1794) and Sarah Tatnall (eldest daughter of

Joseph Tatnall Joseph Tatnall (1740–1813) was an American businessman, who was a prominent Quaker merchant, miller, and banker in Wilmington, Delaware. Early life The only son of Edward and Elizabeth (Pennock) Tatnall, Joseph was born in Wilmington on November ...

) in a house at 1901 Market Street in Wilmington. He was a descendant of John Lea, a prominent Quaker minister from England, who came to America with William Penn on his second voyage. He was the father of

Preston Lea Preston Lea (November 12, 1841 – December 4, 1916) was an American businessman and politician from Wilmington, in New Castle County, Delaware. He was a member of the Republican Party who served as Governor of Delaware. Early life and family Le ...

Governor of Delaware A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

from 1905 to 1908. Lea1901MktBVHABs

Lea was first employed with his father in the firm of Tatnall and Lea, founded in the 1760s on the north bank on the Brandywine Creek by his father and grandfather, and then at

Manayunk, Pennsylvania Manayunk ( ) is a neighborhood in the section of Lower Northwest Philadelphia in the state of Pennsylvania. Located adjacent to the neighborhoods of Roxborough and Wissahickon and also on the banks of the Schuylkill River, Manayunk contains the fir ...

;

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

; and Terre Haute, Indiana. He was married to Jane Scott Lovett on the October 18, 1836. He returned to his old home in Wilmington in 1837 and became one of the proprietors of the Brandywine Mills. The couple had 11 children together, William (b. 1834), Esther (b. 1837), Henry (b. 1839), Preston (b. 1841), Mary (b. 1846), Sarah (1848-1848), Anna (b. 1849), Edward (1852-1867), Alice (1854-1857), Thomas (1856-1859), and Jane (b. 1860). In 1864, the firm was renamed William Lea and Sons when Lea brought his sons, Henry and Preston, into the business. Besides operating the flour mills, Lea was for many years a director in the

Union National Bank Union National Bank (UNB) was a bank based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, from 1982 until it merged with Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank in 2019. It was established as a Public Joint Stock Company in 1982 became one of the UAE's leading domestic ...

of Wilmington, and was also a director in the Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery Company. He was greatly interested in the improvement of Brandywine Village, in which he lived, and favored its annexation to the city of Wilmington as the Ninth Ward. The Superfine Lane Condominiums (named for the grade of flour produced by the Quaker millers) were built in 1984 and incorporated the foundations of the old William Lea and Sons flour mills, which continued to operate 1923.

References

Scharf, Thomas J., History of Delaware, 1609-1888. Volume Two- pp. 759-810. CHAPTER XXXVHistory & Architecture in Brandywine Village

External links

Lea family photograph collection
at Hagley Museum and Library
Morse-Lea photograph collection
at Hagley Museum and Library 1805 births 1876 deaths Businesspeople from Wilmington, Delaware 19th-century American businesspeople {{US-business-bio-1820s-stub