el Ludwell, the father of
Mrs. Lee, was of the council, as also was a son of his. Her grandfather
was a collector of the customs, (having succeeded in that office Giles
Bland, who was executed during Bacon's rebellion,) and afterwards
governor of North Carolina. The Ludwells were staunch supporters of Sir
William Berkley and the Stuart dynasty. Richard Henry Lee's mother, one
of the high-toned aristocracy of the colony, confined her care chiefly
to her daughters and her eldest son, and left her younger sons pretty
much to shift for themselves. After a course of private tuition in his
father's house, Richard Henry was sent to Wakefield Academy, Yorkshire,
England, where he distinguished himself by his proficiency in his
studies, particularly in the Latin and Greek. Having completed his
course at this school, he travelled through England, and visited London.
He returned when about nineteen years of age to his native country, two
years after his father's death, which occurred in 1750. Young Lee's
patrimony rendering it unnecessary for him to devote himself to a
profession, he now passed a life of ease, but not of idleness; for he
indulged his taste for letters, and diligently stored his mind with
knowledge. In 1755, being chosen captain of a company of volunteers
raised in Westmoreland, he marched with them to Alexandria, and offered
their services to General Braddock; but the offer was declined. In his
twenty-fifth year Mr. Lee was appointed a justice of the peace, and
shortly afterwards elected a burgess for his county. Naturally
diffident, and finding himself surrounded by able men, for one or two
sessions he took no part in the debates. One of his early efforts was in
support of a resolution "to lay so heavy a tax on the importation of
slaves as effectually to put an end to that iniquitous and disgraceful
traffick within the colony of Virginia." On this question he argued
against the institution of slavery as a portentous evil, moral and
political.[578:A] When the defalcations of Treasurer Robinson came to be
suspected, Mr. Lee insisted with firmness, in the face of a proud and
embittered opposition, on an investigation of the treasury. In November,
1764, when the stamp act was first heard of in America, Mr. Lee, at the
instance of a friend, wrote to England, making application for a
collector's office under that act. He alleged that at that time neither
he, nor, as he believed, his countrymen, had duly reflected on the