Home of Henry Lee

American revolutionary war cavalry officer, lawyer, politician, and father of General Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), Henry Lee III (1756-1818), lived in this house briefly from the fall of 1810 to February 1811. He served as governor of Virginia from 1791 to 1794 and then in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1799 to 1801. During the war, Lee commanded a unit in the Continental Army called "Lee's Legion," which consisted of both cavalry and infantry. He earned a reputation as a highly capable leader and the Continental Congress awarded him a medal for his actions at the Battle of Paulus Hook. Lee was also known for being a skilled horse rider and earned the nickname "Light-Horse Harry." Lee was a strict disciplinarian as well and often clashed with his fellow officers. Robert E. Lee was almost four years old when his father bought the house, which was built in 1797. It remains a private residence.

Henry Lee III was born on January 29, 1756 in Leesylvania, Virginia on a plantation close to the port town of Dumfries. His father, Henry II, was planter, lawyer, and politician. One of eight children, Lee was tutored at home and enjoyed classical literature and riding horses. As a young man, he studied law at Princeton University (then called the College of New Jersey) and briefly practiced before joining the Continental Army in 1776 as a commissioned captain in the Virginia Light Dragoons. Lee was promoted to major in 1778 and given command of Lee's Legion, which practiced what is now known as guerrilla warfare and participated in a number of engagements, most of which occurred in the southern theater. Notable battles include the Battle of Edgar's Lane (September 30, 1778) and the aforementioned Battle of Paulus Hook (August 19, 1779). Lee was later promoted to lieutenant colonel and was present when British general Charles Cornwallis surrendered after the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.

Lee left the army in 1782 and married his first wife, Matilda, who was an heiress to a large plantation called Stratford Hall in Westmoreland County. He should have been secure financially, but he began to make risky investments that would eventually ruin him. Just before her death, Matilda, knowing how poor Lee was at managing finances, placed the trust of Stratford Hall to their three children instead of him. Lee remarried in 1793 to Anne Carter, whose father put her inheritance in a trust. Anne and Lee had six children, five of whom lived to adulthood including Robert, who became the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil war. Henry Lee's bad financial dealings eventually cost the family Stratford Hall in the 1820s.

Lee, who was a staunch federalist, was elected to the Confederation Congress in 1786 and served for two years. He later served in the Virginia General Assembly from 1789 to 1791 when he was elected governor. In 1794, President George Washington appointed Lee as Major General to put down an uprising in western Pennsylvania called the Whiskey Rebellion. It was successful but the Virginia General Assembly rendered Lee's governorship as vacant by invoking a state law that forbade Virginia governors from accepting a federal appointment. Lee wasn't done with politics, however, and was elected to the General Assembly again and then to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1799. In December that year, Washington died and Lee was asked to give the eulogy, which is famous for the its first words: "First in war, first in peace, and the first in the hearts of countrymen."

He lived at Stratford Hall in the early 1800s but was jailed in 1809-1810 for failing to pay past debts. During that time he wrote a two-volume memoir that was published in 1812 but it was not popular. In 1812, he defended a friend and editor of a newspaper who was a critic of the War of 1812. A mob of drunk war supporters attacked Lee, the editor and others as they were going to a jailhouse, where they would be protected, under police escort. The mob badly beat Lee who survived but was permanently disfigured and never fully recovered. To escape creditors, he fled to the Caribbean where he remained until returning to the U.S. in early 1818, arriving on Cumberland Island, Georgia where the daughter of his former commander, General Nathanael Green, lived. Lee died on March 25, 1818.

"A Guide to the Governor Henry Lee Executive Papers, 1791-1794." The Library of Virginia. 2003. https://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=lva/vi00865.xml.

"Home of Henry Lee." The Historical Marker Database. Accessed February 27, 2023. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=72316.

Woodward, Colin, Edward. "Henry Lee (1756-1818)." Encyclopedia Virginia. May 2, 2022. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/lee-henry-1756-1818.