Lee family

The Lee family of the United States is a historically significant Virginia and Maryland political family, whose many prominent members are known for their accomplishments in politics and the military. The family became prominent in colonial British America when Richard Lee I ("The Immigrant") immigrated to Colonial Virginia in 1639 and made his fortune managing a tobacco plantation worked by enslaved Africans.

Members of the family include Thomas Lee (1690–1750), a founder of the Ohio Company and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses; Francis Lightfoot Lee (1734–1797) and Richard Henry Lee (1732–1794), signers of the American Declaration of Independence, with Richard Lee also serving as one of Virginia's inaugural U.S. Senators; Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee (1756–1818), lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army and Governor of Virginia; Thomas Sim Lee (1745–1819), Governor of Maryland and lastly, and most famous, General Robert E. Lee (1807–1870), commander of the Army of Northern Virginia of the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War (1861–1865). Twelfth President Zachary Taylor (1784–1850, served 1849–1850), and ninth Chief Justice Edward Douglass White (1845–1921, served 1894–1921) were also descendants of Richard Lee I. Confederate President Jefferson Davis married Sarah Knox Taylor, daughter of Zachary Taylor.

Most recently, family members have marked over two hundred years of political service in the United States, as Blair Lee III (1916–1985, served 1971–1979), a descendant of Richard Henry Lee, served as the second Lieutenant Governor of Maryland when the office was revived, from 1971 to 1979 and Acting Governor of Maryland from 1977 to 1979. Charles Carter Lee, a descendant of Henry Lee III and a Superior Court Judge in Los Angeles County, California was named the U.S. team's Chef de Mission by the United States Olympic Committee for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

The Society of the Lees of Virginia, organized in 1921, is composed of descendants of the Lee family's original Jamestown immigrants, Richard Lee I and his wife, Ann Constable. The Society is actively involved in many endeavors consistent with its ongoing mission, including:

• Helping to coordinate and promote an up-to-date contextual understanding of the family derived from archeological, genealogical, and historical research;
• Curating the Lee Family Digital Archive, a central repository of Lee family papers and secondary sources;
• Preserving and interpreting sites of historical importance such as gravesites, Stratford Hall and the Lee–Fendell House;
• Reuniting family members through its annual meeting and other events.