Richard Bland Lee

Richard Bland Lee (January 20, 1761March 12, 1827) was an American planter, jurist, and politician from Fairfax County, Virginia. He was the son of Henry Lee II (1730–1787) of "Leesylvania" and Lucy Grymes (1734–1792), as well as a younger brother of both Maj. Gen. Henry ("Light Horse Harry") Lee (1756–1818) and of Charles Lee (1758–1815), Attorney General of the United States from 1795 to 1801, who served in both the Washington and Adams administrations. Early life and education Richard Bland Lee the third son of Henry Lee II and Lucy Grymes was born on January 20, 1761, at "Leesylvania", the estate built by his father on land overlooking the Potomac River in Prince William County in the Colony of Virginia. He was named after two distinguished relatives, his great-grandfather Richard Bland of "Jordan's Point", and his great-uncle, jurist and statesman Richard Bland, whom Thomas Jefferson called "the wisest man south of the James". Possibly educated by tutors as a youth at "Chantilly", the home of his venerated cousin Richard Henry Lee in Westmoreland County, Virginia, Richard enrolled at the College of William and Mary in 1779. Though not directly involved in the Revolutionary war as his brother Henry Lee III was, Richard nevertheless took an active interest in the American cause. In June 1779 for example, Richard's uncle "Squire" Richard Lee of Lee Hall introduced a resolution in the House of Delegates that would authorize the building of a new statehouse. Though only eighteen years of age, Richard Bland Lee, in a letter written later that month, rebuked his famous uncle, characterizing the effort as "abominable ... [at a] ... time of public danger when our expenses are already unsupportable." On June 17 of the next year Richard was admitted to the Phi Beta Kappa Society, an academic organization through which he was able to refine his speaking skills. In December of that year, a British invasion fleet transporting newly minted British General Benedict Arnold and his troops appeared off Jamestown, prepared it seemed, to launch an advance upon Richmond. Phi Beta Kappa undertook to secure its papers against capture, and many of its members joined a hastily formed local militia company to offer at least some resistance to the expected invasion.