LEE, Hon. Robert (1706-76), of Charlbury, Oxon.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1754 - 1768

Family and Education

b. 3 July 1706, 13th s. of Edward, 1st Earl of Lichfield, by Lady Charlotte Fitzroy, illegit. da. of Charles II by Barbara, suo jure Duchess of Cleveland.  m. 29 May 1745, Catherine, da. of Sir John Stonhouse, 3rd Bt., M.P., s.p.  suc. nephew as 4th Earl of Lichfield 19 Sept. 1772.

Offices Held

Biography

Lee was returned for Oxford on his family interest, and was classed as Tory in Dupplin’s list of 1754, and in Bute’s of December 1761. He appears in Henry Fox’s list of those in favour of the peace preliminaries, December 1762; was described by Jenkinson in the autumn of 1763 as ‘pro’, and as ‘absent friend’ over general warrants, 18 Feb. 1764. He was classed by Rockingham as ‘contra’, July 1765; as ‘Tory, Bute’, November 1766, and by Townshend, January 1767, as ‘absent’. However, no vote by him is recorded during this Parliament, and he appears in Newcastle’s list, 2 Mar. 1767, as ‘doubtful or absent’. Nor is there any record of his having spoken in the House. Before the general election of 1768 the mayor and corporation of Oxford wrote to Lee and his colleague, Sir Thomas Stapleton, offering to re-elect them if they would advance £5,670 to pay off the city’s debts. They refused the offer—‘As we never intend to sell you, so we cannot afford the purchase’, they wrote to the corporation; and neither stood at the general election of 1768.

Lee died 3 Nov. 1776.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: John Brooke

Notes