Family and Education

b. c.1700, 5th s. of Sir Thomas Lee, 2nd Bt., of Hartwell House, Bucks. by Alice, da. and coh. of Thomas Hopkins, London merchant; bro. of Sir William Lee, L.C.J., and of John Lee.  educ. Clare, Camb. 1716; Ch. Ch. Oxf. 1720; M. Temple 1719; Doctors’ Commons 1729.  m. 5 June 1742, Judith, da. of Humphry Morice, M.P., of Werrington Park, Launceston, and sis. of Humphry Morice, s.p.  Kntd. 12 Feb. 1752.

Offices Held

Ld. of Admiralty 1742-4; treasurer of the Household to the Princess of Wales 1751-7; dean of arches and judge of the P.C.C. Dec. 1751-8; P.C. 13 Feb. 1752.

Biography

In 1754 Lee was returned by his brother-in-law, Humphry Morice, at Launceston, and for a while, with the rest of Leicester House, supported Administration. In the summer of 1755 he was considered by Newcastle for chancellor of the Exchequer.1 But, opposed to the subsidy treaties, in the debate on the Address on 13 Nov. Lee spoke and voted against Administration. Gradually he drifted away from the Opposition, and in May 1757, after having been offered the Exchequer by Newcastle, was dropped without notice—one ‘of those gentlemen, who a few days before had entered into engagements with the Duke of Newcastle, and were waiting in their best clothes, in hourly expectation of being sent for to court, to kiss his Majesty’s hand’.2 A short time later Lee, averse to the growing influence of Bute and Pitt at Leicester House, resigned his office in the Princess’s household, and virtually went into retirement.  He died 18 Dec. 1758.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Sir Lewis Namier

Notes

• 1. Add. 32857, ff. 37-39, 362.
• 2. Waldegrave, Mems. 113.