John Constable Lee

John Constable Lee (1643 – 1673), the Oxford educated eldest son of London merchant and Virginia planter Richard Lee I accompanied his father on several of his voyages between London and its Virginia colony.^[1]

Named after his paternal grandfather or uncle, John Lee was born near Tindall's Creek on the north side of the York River shortly after his newly married parents moved away from the Virginia colony's capital at Jamestown, and as an infant escaped with them from major Native American raid in 1644 that killed many English settlers and their native allies.^[2] He grew up at his father's various newly established plantations in Virginia, then sailed to England to study at Oxford University in preparation to becoming a physician, but after graduation did not become a doctor. Instead, he assisted his father with the family's business interests.^[3] John Lee probably accompanied his father on his last voyage to Virginia, where Richard Lee died on his Northumberland County plantation, after naming John Lee as his executor.^[4]

John Lee inherited three islands in Chesapeake Bay from his father, as well as the Machodoc plantation in Westmoreland County. He became an important person in Westmoreland county, leading the militia and serving as its high sheriff at various times, and as justice of the county court at others.^[5] Westmoreland county voters elected John Lee as one of the county's two delegates to the House of Burgesses in 1673, and he succeeded his younger brother Richard Lee II (who had served as one of the county's two delegates to the House of Burgesses in 1671 and 1672).^[6] John Lee never married and died at his home later that year. Although Richard Lee II had only inherited property in Gloucester County from his father, after his John's death, he not only inherited his brother's significant library, he also assumed responsibility as their father's executor, and inherited the Machodoc plantation (to which he moved his family).^[7]

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