Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/376

Lee of Sopewell, to the south-west of St. Albans. A patent, dated 4 Oct. 1544, also granted to him a new coat of arms.

Late in 1644 Lee came to consult Henry VIII about the further fortification of Calais, and in the early part of 1546 he was busy restoring the defence works both at Calais and Boulogne. In April he was in England, and was sent to examine the defences of the Isle of Thanet in May. At Hertford's request the king sent Lee to advise him about the defence of Yarmouth and the adjoining coast, and in August about the fortifications round Kelso. In August the Duke of Suffolk asked for Lee's assistance at Portsmouth. In May 1646 Lee was sent to Calais to prepare plans showing the boundaries proposed by the French commissioners for the treaty of peace, with orders to bring them when ready personally to the king. In February 1547 Lee was at Boulogne. On 18 May the rectory and right of patronage of the vicarage of Hexton, Hertfordshire, was granted by letters patent to him and his heirs.

Lee accompanied the protector Somerset in his expedition into Scotland in the summer and autumn of 1547, when the pioneers under his orders had hard work in putting the roads in order and in undermining the castle of Dunglas. Lee was present at the assault on the forts of Thornton and Anderwyke, at the action near Hayes Castle 7 Sept., and at the battle of Pinkie or Musselburgh on the 10th. On the 12th he rode with the protector and the council over the position in front of Leith, and it was decided to cut a deep ditch on the east side of that town. In 154e Edward VI granted to Lee the priory of Newent in Gloucestershire. During the next ten years Lee seems to have led a retired life in Hertfordshire, where he demolished the monastic buildings of St. Albans and used the materials for the repair and enlargement of Sopewell Nunnery, which he renamed Lee's Place.

By the charter of 12 May 1563, which incorporated St. Albans, the king granted the abbey church, which had been excepted out of Lee's grant, to the inhabitants for 400l. and a fee farm-rent of 10l., which was to be paid by them to Lee, 'to whom his majesty of his liberalyte hath given the same for his goode and acceptable syrvyse.' Queen Mary's proposal, made in 1556, to re-establish the monastery of St. Albans was not, happily for Lee, carried out at the time of her death. In 1657 Lee was trenchmaster with the English army under the Earl of Pembroke, sent to join the Spaniards under the Duke of Savoy in the Netherlands, and he was present at the siege and capture of St. Quentin.

In December Lee was employed in improving the fortification of Berwick and the Scottish border, and in January 1558 Queen Mary directed him to reside in Berwick as surveyor of fortifications. For more than a year he was busy with the defences, not only of Berwick, but of Tynemouth and Norham; in 1559 he surveyed Leith, Edinburgh, and Inchkeith, and corresponded as an agent of the English court with the Scottish protestants. Lee returned to St. Albans at the end of August, and on 2 Nov. 1559 he was sent on secret service to Antwerp, where he won the good graces of Sir Thomas Chaloner [q. v.] Early in 1560 Lee prepared designs for the building of Upnor Castle on the Med way. At the request of the Duke of Norfolk Lee was sent in March to complete the defence of Berwick.

When late in March the English army had moved forward from Berwick under Lord Grey and was lying within a mile of Leith, Lee was sent by Norfolk to advise on the mode of attacking the place, and to urge Grey to hasten the attack. After making a plan of Leith, which was forwarded to Elizabeth, he returned to Berwick, and on 5 July Leith was demolished. During the next few months Lee was still occupied in surveying and fortifying Berwick.

On 12 Oct. 1562, on instructions from Cecil, Lee went to Dieppe and thence to Havre, which an English force under the Earl of Warwick had undertaken to hold for the French protectants against the army of the Guises. In December Lee's plans for the defence of Havre were in course of execution. On 20 Feb. 1564, Lee and others were appointed a commission on the state of Berwick, n April Lee arrived at Berwick, and in July submitted plans to the queen in London. Although he had leave of absence in the winter of 1564-5, he was vigorously prosecuting the works of defence at Berwick in May 1565. On 26 June Lee reported to the council a visit that he paid to Holy Island in connection with the defence of Berwick. On 2 Nov. 1573 the Earl of Essex requested that Lee might go to Ireland to construct a fort near Belfast.

Lee died in 1575. An epitaph in Latin commemorating Lee and his family is in the chancel of St. Peter's Church, St. Albans, in which parish Sopewell lay. In the drama of ' Sir Jonn Oldcastle' (part i. 1600) is introduced a character called 'Sir Richard Lee of St. Albans.'

Lee married Margaret, daughter of Sir R. Greenfield, a fellow-commander with him at Calais, and had two daughters, coheiresses : the elder, Anne, married Edward Sadler, esq., of Temple Dinsley, Hertfordshire, and of Apsley, Bedfordshire, second son of Sir