Sir William Lee (2 August 16888 April 1754) was a British jurist and politician.

Life

He was the second 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 ...

. He matriculated at

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

in 1704, shortly after entering the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

; he did not take a degree, but was called to the bar in 1710. Member of Parliament for Wycombe from 1727 until 1730, he gave up the seat when he became a

Justice of the King's Bench Justice of the King's Bench, or Justice of the Queen's Bench during the reign of a female monarch, was a puisne judicial position within the Court of King's Bench, under the Chief Justice. The King's Bench was a court of common law which modern ...

. Lee was Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 8 June 1737 until his sudden death in 1754. He was appointed formally as Chancellor of the Exchequer as a temporary expedient on 8 March 1754, when

Henry Pelham Henry Pelham (25 September 1694 – 6 March 1754) was a British Whig statesman who served as 3rd Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1743 until his death in 1754. He was the younger brother of Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, who ...

died, with his brother Sir George Lee as Under Treasurer of the Exchequer, until 6 April, his own death. Lord Campbell noted that Lee "certainly stood up for the rights of woman more strenuously than any English judge before or since his time".

Notes

References

J. C. D. Clark Jonathan Charles Douglas Clark (born 28 February 1951) is a British historian of both British and American history. He received his undergraduate degree at Downing College, Cambridge. Having previously held posts at Peterhouse, Cambridge and A ...

, ''The Dynamics of Change: The Crisis of the 1750s and English Party Systems'' (Cambridge University Press, 2002). *Lord Campbell, ''The Lives of the Chief Justices of England: Volume III'' (Cockcroft and Co, 1878). {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, William Lord chief justices of England and Wales Chancellors of the Exchequer of Great Britain 1688 births 1754 deaths Justices of the King's Bench Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1727–1734 Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain Lords of the Manor of Totteridge Younger sons of baronets