Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/146

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

him by appointing him lieutenant of the Tower, an act which at once caused the most intense excitement all over the country. It was at the time when the struggle between the King and commons was rapidly drawing to a crises, and every royal act was scrutinized v.ith hostile eyes. The placing of a man, whose youth had been anything but exemplary, was seized upon by the excited popular imagi- nation and exaggerated beyond the bounds of reason. He was accused of every crime of oppression, of plotting against the people's and was even believed to be a cannibal who ate children. That Lunsford's sympathies were entirely royalist, that he was a resolute and dangerous enemy of the parliament in the civil wars, was later abundantly proven, and it seems quite possible that he was even vio- lent towards those who opposed him ; but the popular belief was undoubtedly quite with- out foundation, and merely one of those ex- travagances which the heated feelings of such a time give rise to. Lunsford took an active part in the wars which shook England, and was unusually successful in the field. He was thrice captured and twice released, though on each occasion he resolutely declared his allegi- ance to the King. The manner of his regain- ing his freedom for the third time is not known, but he was at liberty before June 29, 1648, for there is a letter of that date from him to the Prince of Wales. After the execu- tion of the King, Lunsford, like so many of his fellow cavaliers, sought refuge in Virginia, which held out for the royal cause, and on Aug. 7, 1649, ^^ received a pass for himself and family to the new home across the water. In Col. Norwood's account of his own voyage to Virginia, he relates finding at Capt. Worm- ley's, several friends and brother officers who, a short time before, had come from England.

They were Cols. Philip Honeywood, Main- waring Hammond, Sir Henry Chicheley and Sir Thomas Lunsford. In Oct., 1650, he re- ceived a patent for 3423 acres of land on the Rappahannock river. When Virginia was threatened with an invasion by the parlia- mentary forces from England, Gov. Berkeley did not overlook so distinguished a soldier as Lunsford, who accordingly appears in a list of councillors present on Nov. 6, 165 1, as Sir Thomas Lunsford, lieutenant-general. He of course retired from the council on the colony's surrender to parliament. His death must have occurred about 1653, as there is, in that year, an order among the English records, appointing a guardian for his three daughters. By his third wife, whom he married in \'ir- ginia, he had a daughter Catherine, who mar- ried Hon. Ralph Wormeley, Esq., secretary of state, and from this marriage Sir Thomas has many descendants in Virginia.

Lee, Richard, wdio was honored in being the progenitor of the distinguished Lee family of Virginia, was descended from the Coton branch of the Shropshire Lees, one of the old- est families in England, their ancestry being traceable for some 750 years. "Colonel Rich- ard Lee, Secretary of State in Virginia, anno 1659," was described by a descendant as "of good stature, comely visage, an enterprising genius, a sound head, vigorous spirit and gen- erous nature." His first home in Virginia was in York county, where on Aug. 10, 1642, he was granted i,ocxd acres of land. There is a tradition to the efifect that Col. Lee was accompanied to Virginia by a brother Robert, who also settled in York, but whether or not this is true, or whether the other families of Lee in Virginia were in any way related to the councillor, cannot be proven. The first