Philip Lee, Sr.

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Capt. Philip Lee, Sr., Hon., Esq. (1681-1744), Captain, Justice, Sheriff, member of Upper House, King's Council. Philip was the son of Col. Richard Lee II, Esq., “the scholar” (1647-1715) and Laetitia Corbin (ca. 1657-1706).

Philip was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, probably at “Paradise” in 1681. He moved to the Province of Maryland in about 1700, and married his first wife, Sarah in about 1707. Philip was commissioned a Captain in 1708, and that same year was elected as a member member of the Lower House of the General Assembly from in which he served until 1722. Philip was a Justice of Prince George's County, Maryland from 1710-1720 and the Sheriff from 1722-1725. From 1725-1744 he was a member of the Upper House, and also on the King’s Council during the same time. Philip was a Justice of the Provincial Court from 1726-1732, and Associate Commissary General in 1727, and a Naval Officer of the North Potomac from 1727-1744. Philip owned over 2,467 acres and his estate was valued at 4,240 pounds current money, including 87 slaves, 2 servants, 185 oz. old silver, 1 yawl, and books, at his plantations in Prince George’s, Charles, and Dorchester Countiesin Maryland.

Philip had been living in Maryland approximately 14 years when he inherited from his father, a tract of land at Cedar Point in Maryland called the “Lee’s Purchase” plantation, of Stump Dale, situated on the Potomac in Charles County. However, this property was occupied by a tenant with a sole and exclusive contract between 1705 and 1718. It was not until the later date that Philip would gain legal title to the land when the dispute between his father and another claimant to the land was settled by the Provincial Court. The property was only just being developed when Philip died in April of 1744, and his will was recorded in Charles County on May 1, 1744. At this date there was a one-room-and-loft dwelling which doubled as Philip’s naval office. In addition he had built a bakehouse and mill which he listed in his will. Philip’s home plantation was his Prince George’s County seat, where all of his children were undoubtedly born.

The Lee family of Virginia and Maryland held arms that were described as, “Gules, a fesse componee or and azure between eight billets argent”. Crest: “On a staff raguly a squirrel cracking a nut from dexter end of the staff an oak branch fructed, all proper”.^{[citation needed]} These were the same arms used by the Lees of Coton and Langley, Salop, and confirmed by the College of Arms for the Maryland and Virginia branches.