Getting to Know the Signers: Richard Henry Lee

Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794)
is your 7th great-grandfather

Colonel Ludwell Lee (1760-1836)
son of Richard Henry Lee
Mary Ann Lee (1789-1846)
daughter of Colonel Ludwell Lee
Maria Frances Campbell (1826-1902)
daughter of Mary Ann Lee
Maria Francita Sloo (1850-1921)
daughter of Maria Frances Campbell
Ellen Lee Sloo Johnson (1870-1926)
daughter of Maria Francita Sloo
Ellen Lee Sloo Kearny (1901-1942)
daughter of Ellen Lee Sloo Johnson
Alfred Adair Watters, Jr. and Warren Kearny Watters
sons of Ellen Lee Sloo Kearny

"Tall, thin and aristocratic in appearance, Richard Henry Lee was a born orator. He used his hand, always wrapped in black silk due to a hunting accident, to emphasize the cadences in his remarkably musical voice. His oratory was legend – “That fine polish of language which that gentleman united with that harmonious voice so as to make me sometimes fancy that I was listening to some being inspired with more than mortal powers of embellishment” was how one observer described him." 

- stratfordhall.org.

An American statesman best known for the motion in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies' independence from Great Britain, Richard Henry Lee was born on January 20, 1732. He was a signer of the Articles of Confederation and his famous resolution of June 1776 led to the United States Declaration of Independence, which he signed along with his brother Francis. He also served a one-year term as the President of the Continental Congress, and was a United States Senator from Virginia from 1789 to 1792. During that time, he served as one of the first Presidents pro tempore.

Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, he was a son of Thomas Lee and Hannah Harrison Ludwell Lee. He was raised as an Episcopalian and came from a line of military officers, diplomats, and legislators. Lee spent most of his early life in with his family at Stratford Hall in Virginia. He was tutored and taught in a variety of skills,  and in 1748, at age 16, he left Virginia for Yorkshire, England, to complete his formal education. Both of his parents died in 1750 and, in 1753, after touring Europe, he returned to Virginia.

In 1757, he was appointed justice of the peace in Westmoreland County and in 1758 elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses. Lee was an early advocate of independence, and he became one of the first to create Committees of Correspondence among the many independence-minded Americans in the various colonies.

Richard Henry Lee was chosen as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia in August 1774. In his Resolution on the 7th of June 1776 during the Second Continental Congress, he put forth the motion to the Continental Congress to declare Independence from Great Britain.

He had returned to Virginia by the time Congress voted on and adopted the Declaration of Independence, but he signed the document when he returned to Congress.

In late 1784 at the French Arms Tavern in Trenton, NJ, Lee was elected the sixth President of Congress under the Articles of Confederation, and in January 1785, Congress convened in the old New York City Hall and he presided until late November.

Around 1789, in decling health, Richard Henry Lee retired from the Senate and public service to his family and his home in Chantilly, Virginia. On June 19, 1794, he died at the age of 62.

Getting to Know the Signers: Francis Lightfoot Lee

Francis Lightfoot Lee (1734 - 1797)

Hannah Harrison Ludwell (1701-1750)

Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794)

Col. Ludwell Lee (1760-1836)

Mary Ann Lee (1789-1846)

Maria Frances Campbell (1826-1901)

Maria Francita Sloo (1850-1921)

Ellen Lee Sloo Johnson (1870-1926)

Ellen Lee Sloo Kearny (1901-1942)

Alfred Adair Watters, Jr. and Warren Kearny Watters

From the Stratford Hall website:

Frank Lee, as he was known to those close to him, was regarded by his brothers as the keenest of them in all political judgement. He was quiet, reticent, and had no taste for public life, but the responsibilities that came from bearing the Lee name during the turbulent times of the American Revolution eventually propelled him into service.

In 1769, Frank, then in his thirties, married a girl of 16, Rebecca Tayloe, one of the eight daughters of John Tayloe of Mount Airy. It was a marriage of love, and the letters they exchanged while Frank served in the House of Burgesses in Williamsburg reveal how much the separation cost them. He served reluctantly at first, preferring to spend time with his new wife and the building of their home, Menokin. But as the Revolution neared, Frank cast his lot with the Virginia patriots. He became a close associate of Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry, though he preferred library discussions and back-room strategy to the limelight of public debate. Frank’s contributions to the formation of the American Republic, though subtle and often overlooked, were nonetheless critical. His staid countenance offered stability to the sometimes fractious debate among the delegates and, importantly, he modulated the fiery and sometimes divisive speech of his brother, Richard Henry. “He was,” as his youngest brother Arthur attested, “calmness and philosophy itself.”

In September 1776, Frank went to Philadelphia as a delegate to the second Continental Congress. There he joined forces with his brother, Richard Henry, and by all accounts they were well received and respected. “The Virginians,” John Adams later recounted, “were the most spirited and consistent of any.” In the late summer of 1776, Frank and his brother Richard Henry, along with fifty-four other Delegates, signed the Declaration of Independence.

Frank then returned to Virginia to continue his political career. He served, it seemed, from a sense of duty and conviction rather than one of ambition. It was not until 1785 than Frank was able to forsake politics forever and return to Rebecca and his Menokin estate, where the devoted couple raised the daughters of his infirm brother, William. Frank spent his remaining days reading, farming, and enjoying the quiet country life. In January of 1797, Rebecca and Frank Lee died only ten days apart. The couple is buried side by side in the Tayloe family graveyard at Mount Airy. One of Frank’s nieces described her uncle as the “Sweetest of all the Lee race…Thy temper’s as soft as the doves…”

Getting to Know the Signers ~ One by One

Philip Livingston (1716-1778)

Philip Livingston (1686-1749)
Sarah Livingston  (Lady Stirling) (1726-1783)
Lady Mary Alexander (- 1820)
Robert Watts (1743-1814)
John Watts, Sr. (1715-1789)
Susanna Watts (1750-1823)
John Watts Kearny (1778-1850)
Philip John Kearny (1806-1841)
John Watts Kearny (1835-1903)
Warren Kearny (1870-1947)
Ellen Lee Sloo Kearny (1901-1942)
Alfred Adair Watters, Jr. and Warren Kearny Watters

The first of our family signers of the Declaration of Independence is Philip Livingston from New York. Philip and his brother William were ardent patriots, with Phillip signing the Declaration of Independence and his brother, William, the US Constitution.

Born in Albany, New York to a prosperous family, his family estate consisted of over 150,000 acres. Philip graduated from Yale University in 1737 and in 1740 he married Christina Ten Broeck, daughter of the mayor of Albany. Becoming a merchant in New York City, he took an active part in civic affairs. He helped build the New York Chamber of Commerce, the New York Hospital, and the New York Society Library. He also helped establish Columbia University in New York City and Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Livingston became an active promoter of efforts to raise and fund troops for the war, and in 1759 was elected to the  Province of New York assembly, serving as Speaker in 1768. In October 1765, he attended the Stamp Act Congress, which produced the first formal protest to the crown as a prelude to the American Revolution. When New York established the New York Provincial Congress in 1775, he was the President. He was selected as one of their delegates to the Continental Congress that year. A strong supporter of separation from Great Britain, in 1776 he joined other delegates in the Declaration of Independence.

After the adoption of the new New York State Constitution, he was appointed to the New York State Senate in 1777, while continuing to sit in the Continental Congress. He died suddenly while attending the sixth session of Congress in York, Pennsylvania. A Presbyterian and a Mason, he is buried in the Prospect Hill Cemetery in York.

Information borrowed from Find-A -Grave and Wikipedia.

Signers Galore!

Did you know you are related to multiple signers of the Declaration of Independence? 

Today, give thanks for the USA and specifically those who signed this lasting document of freedom.

Philip Livingston (1716-1778)

Representing New York at the Continental Congress

*(a stretch) - uncle of wife of sixth great grand uncle

Francis Lightfoot Lee (1734-1797)
Virginia House of Burgesses, Representing Virginia at the Continental Congress
*your seventh great grand uncle

James Smith (1719-1806)

Representing Pennsylvania at the Continental Congress

*your fourth great grandfather

Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794)
Virginia House of Burgesses, Representing Virginia at the Continental Congress
*your seventh great grandfather







*relationship calculated to Nat & Bob and Tatine & Warren's grandchildren.

**Thanks to Phillip Watters for Post idea