In the winter of 1750, the death of Thomas Lee left his six sons to inherit a massive empire of Tidewater land and transatlantic commerce—an inheritance that would ultimately forge them into the most formidable family alliance of the American Revolution.
Steeped in the stern classical traditions of Greece and Rome, the five younger brothers—Thomas Ludwell, Richard Henry, Francis Lightfoot, William, and Arthur Lee—found themselves bound together by a shared Classical tradition, patriotic American outlook, and bitter domestic feud over their patrimony against their overbearing eldest brother, Philip Ludwell Lee.
From the splendorous river wharves of Stratford Hall to the quiet gardens of Chantilly-on-the-Potomac, and from the legislative benches of Williamsburg and Philadelphia to the precarious courts of Europe, this chronicle follows five of the greatest men of the Lee Family of Virginia as they sacrificed their ease, fortune, and peace to win the American Revolution and build the American Republic.
CHAPTERS:
- 0:00 The Death of Thomas Lee at Stratford Hall
- 3:15 How A Classical Education Created Four Founders
- 10:13 Philip Ludwell Lee—“Colonel Phil”—Takes Control
- 13:00 The Lee Brothers Work Together, But are Divided by Thomas’s Will
- 21:15 Chantilly on the Potomac Becomes The Base of the Founding Brothers
- 23:12 How the Lee Brothers Helped Win the American Revolution
- 29:12 William and Arthur Abroad
- 33:05 The Cost of Revolution: Death and Disillusionment
- 38:18 The Legacy of the Lee Brothers of Stratford Hall
Sources Referenced in this Episode:
I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you would like to support the show at no added cost to yourself, you can do so by using the links below to order and read the sources I used to create this episode. Thanks!
Nagel, Paul C.: The Lees of Virginia: Seven Generations of an American Dynasty, https://amzn.to/4uCI6o9
Hendrick, Burton J.: The Lees of Virginia, https://amzn.to/4uCN4BF
Lee, Cazenove G. Jr.: Lee Chronicle: Studies of the Early Generations of the Lees, https://amzn.to/4vGzbDe
Dowdey, Clifford: The Virginia Dynasties, https://amzn.to/4vlqoqN
Dowdey, Clifford: The Golden Age, https://amzn.to/3QbGNi4
Dowdey, Clifford: The Great Plantation, https://amzn.to/4gdOxKR
Wright, Louis B.: The First Gentlemen of Virginia, https://amzn.to/4ekuR5z
McGaughy, J. Kent: Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, https://amzn.to/4ewtGA4
Burt, Nathaniel: First Families: The Making of an American Aristocracy, https://amzn.to/3Sopnj2
Evans, Emory G.: A “Topping People”: The Rise and Decline of Virginia’s Old Political Elite, 1680-1790, https://amzn.to/43UPMaK
Morton, Richard L.: Colonial Virginia VOLUME II Westward Expansion and Prelude to Revolution, 1710-1763, https://amzn.to/4vynVJw
Potts, Louis W.: Arthur Lee: A Virtuous Revolutionary, https://amzn.to/4vpFLOF