This story has been past down through generations that we are related to Gen. Lee. It has only been 200 years since his birth, however the link has been very difficult for me to make. So that I am not recreating the wheel, if anyone has already made the link to our family through Dorothy Ann Lee please take the time to comment to let me know and help me out. I have made a few trips to the library and I am sure I will make a few more. Here is a story I found on another blog out there that I found interesting.
Robert E. Lee was born Jan. 19, 1807, at Stratford Plantation on the Northern Neck of Virginia and was the seventh child of Revolutionary War hero Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee. He attended West Point and never received a demerit. By all accounts enormously handsome, tall, charismatic and humble, he had a long and illustrious career in the U.S. Army. In 1861, as Southern states contemplated secession, Lee privately ridiculed the idea. Still, when he was offered command of the Union Army, he turned it down once Virginia -- his "country" -- seceded.
During the Civil War, Lee's troops were often vastly outnumbered but managed to win or fight to a stalemate for years. Once the war ended, Lee resisted calls to continue the fight in the hills as a guerrilla and instead encouraged his soldiers to go home and begin rebuilding the nation. He retired to what was then Washington College, where he set about innovating the offerings, including the first classes in the country in business and journalism.
In other countries, leaders of failed civil rebellions are often reviled. But a strange thing happened to Lee after he died. He became beloved by many. Over the years, he has been praised by the likes of Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had a picture of Lee hanging in his office.
Northerners, seizing on Lee's early ambivalence about the war, his gentlemanly sense of honor and duty, and his distaste of slavery -- he once wrote that it was a "moral and political evil" -- embraced the Confederate general as a way to foster reconciliation, said John Coski, a historian at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond. In 1901, he was one of only 29 Americans inducted into New York University's Hall of Fame. Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the lyrics for the Battle Hymn of the Republic, composed a poem in Lee's honor.
At the same time, his former generals wrote of him as so perfect and his cause so noble that Lee became fixed as the tragic hero of a romantic "Lost Cause" and that cause became synonymous with white Southern identity.
"There's an old saw in the South of a little girl asking, 'Mommy, is Robert E. Lee from the Old Testament or the New?' " Coski said. "Lee has been so praised and distorted that they made him more than human, and in so doing, made him less than human. He's a complex figure. If we want to understand history in its complexity, we have to understand Robert E. Lee."
When the Lee's came to America it was still a wild and largely unexplored land. Sir Francis Drake had sailed along the coast of California and had landed near San Francisco in 1579. The colony of Virginia, where the Lee family was to become important was then settle only along the tidewater bays and rivers. Inland was still very much Indian Land. The community of Virginia was founded in 1607. By the time Richard Lee arrived on the shores in 1639 there were 7,500 white settlers and several hundred Negro slaves. The Indians had nearly wiped out Jamestown in 1622, and were still a threat. John Smith and the Indian maiden Pocahontas, who had allegedly save his life were dead. In 1640 Richard Lee married Anne Constable. They moved twenty miles outside of Jamestown on the mouth of the York River near the Indian town of Capahosic Wicomico. Pocahontas had died in 1617 and her father, Powhatan died in 1618. He was succeeded by Chief Openchancanough. In 1644 this new Chief had seen enough of the White man taking up the land. On April 18, 1644 the Indians came out of the forest and killed 300 White men. Richard Lee and his family escaped on a trading boat and settled in New Poquoson safe from any future attacks. In 1650 Richard Lee returns to England and is made Colonel during the British Civil Wars, Commonwealth and Protectorate (1638-1660). The religious society of friends acquire the name "Quakers" when the judge at George Fox's trial for blasphemy says that they "tremble at the word of the Lord." Prior to his death in 1664, Richard and Anne Lee had eight children: John Lee (1642-1673), Richard Lee (1646-1714) m. Laetitia Corbin (1657-1706), Francis Lee (1648-1714), William Lee (1650-1696), Hancock Lee (1652-1709) m. (1) Mary Kendall, (2) Sarah Allerton, Elizabeth Lee (1653-?) M. Leonard Howson, Anne Lee (1653-?) M. Thomas Youell, Charles Lee (1656-1700) m. Elizabeth Metstand and founded the Cobbs Hall Line of Lee's.
Richard & Laetitia had seven children: John Lee (d. infant), Richard Lee (1678-1718) m. Martha Silk, Philip Lee (1678-1718) m. (1) Sarah Brooke, (2) Elizabeth Sewell, Francis (unk), Thomas Lee (1690-1750) m. Hannah Harrison Ludwell, from whom descend the Stratford Lees. Henry Lee (1691-1747) m. Mary Bland, from whom descend the Leesylvania Less. Ann Lee (?-1732) m. William Fitzhugh. Thomas & Hannah Lee had eight children: Philip Ludwell Lee (1726-1775) m. Elizabeth Steptoe, Hannah Lee (1728-1782) m. Gawin Corbin, Thomas Ludwell Lee (1730-1778) m. Mary Aylett, Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794) M. (1) Ann Aylett, (2) Ann Pinckard, Francis Lightfoot Lee (1734-1797) m. Rebecca Taylor, Alice Lee (1736-1818) m. William Shippen, William Lee (1739-1795) m. Hannah P. Ludwell, Arthur Lee (1740-1792) died single. Henry & Lucy Lee had eight children: Henry (Light Horse Harry) Lee (1756-1818) m. (1) "Cousin" Matilda Lee, (2) Ann Hill Carter, of Shirley, Charles Lee (1758-1815) (U.S. Attorney-General 1795-1801)., Richard Bland Lee (1761-1827), Theodorick Lee (1766-1840), Edmund Jennings Lee (1772-1843), Lucy Lee (17740?), Mary Lee (unk), Anne Lee (1776-1857). Philip Ludwell & Elizabeth had two daughters who both married cousins: Matilda Lee, m. Maj. Gen. Henry (Light Horse Harry) Lee, Flora Lee, m. Ludwell Lee. From the marriage of Maj. Gen. Henry (Light Horse Harry) Lee & cousing Matilda Lee they had two children: Lucy Grymes Lee (1786-1860), and Henry Lee (1787-1837) who was the last master of the Stratford Lee's, he died in Paris. Childred from (2nd) wife of Maj. Gen Henry Lee, they had six: Algernon Sidney Lee (1795-1796), Charles Carter Lee (1798-1871), Anne Kinloch Lee (1800-1864), Sydney Smith Lee (1802-1869) m. William Fitzhugh (1835-1905) great-grandson of Ann Lee & William Fitzhugh. (Major General of the Confederate States Army, Governor of Virginia, Major General, U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War., Robert Edward Lee (1807-1870), m. Mary Anne Custis,. Catherine Mildred Lee (1811-1856). Robert E. & Mary Anne Lee had seven children: George Washington Custis Lee (1832-1913) died single,. Mary Custis Lee, died single, William Henry Fitzhugh Lee (1837-1891) m. Mary Tabb Bolling, Annie Lee (1839-1862) died single, Agnes Lee (unk) died single, Robert Edward Lee II (unk), Mildred Lee (unk) died single. From William H. & Mary T. Lee they had two children: George Billing Lee (1872- ?) m. Helen Keney, Robert Edward Lee III (unk). It appears that Robert Edward II married (unk) and had two children: Anne Carter Lee (unk) m. Hanson Ely Jr., Mary Custis Lee (unk) m. Hunter De Butts.
This is enough for now... as we can see there are several lines of the Lee family to research. Wish me good luck, and if you can be of any help just hit the comment link below this post.
