Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/164

 been an eye witness of many of the events of chief interest which had lately occurred in the Colony. On Dec. 13, 1678, Francis Moryson wrote to William Blathwayt that he had "advice" that Col. Place had lately arrived in England from Virginia, and that the colonel was "one of the Council and a very honest gentleman.'" On :Iarch 14, 1678-79, the King directed that Place should be continued in the c(uncil. but on May 20 Capt. Rudge, of the sluj) '•ilopcwLir just come from irginia,"' appeared before the committee of trade and plantations, and stated, among other things, that the Indians had recently killed several pe])le and totally ruined the plantation of Col. Place, who was in P2ngland. Perhaps it was this news that caused Place to linger abroad, lie was included in the commission of councillors under Lord Culpeper, read on May 10. 1680. but still did not return iu 'ir- ginia. and on Dec. 12, ir)8i, (iov. Culpeper wrote that he had appointed a councillor "in the room of Col. Rowland Place," who was "living in hLngland." lie was the .son of ]-'rancis Place, the celebrated painter of York, and Ann Williamson, his wife, ile married Priscilla, daughter of Sir John Prookcs, of Xorton, county York, baronet. He was born ir>42 and died 171 3 (see "h'amili;e .Minorum (Icntimn," vol. iii. p. 921).

Lee, Richard, Jr., was the second son of Pichard Lee, the immigrant, and ..nna, his wife, and the eldest son to leave male descend- ants in 'irginia. He was born in 1647, ])roba- bly at "Paradise," in Gloucester county, but afterwards went to W^estmoreland and made bis home at "Mount Pleasant," on the Po- tcmiac river. He was sent to England to be c;'ucated and became a student at Oxford. One of his grandsons wrote of him that "he was so clever that some great men offered to promote him to the highest dignities in the Church if his father woukl let him stay in England; but this offer was refused, as the old Gentleman was determined to fix all his clildren in 'irginia. " Richard spent ahiiost his whole life in study, and usually wrote his notes in Greek, Hebrew or Latin so that he neither diminished nor improved his paternal estate. * * * He was of the Council in X'irginia and also other offices of honor and profit, though they yielded little to him." In the proclamation made by "Xat Bacon," the rebel, concerning the griev- ances of "ye Commonality" against the royal- ist. Gov. Berkeley, Richard Lee is mentioned a;; one of the governor's "wicked and per- nicious councell" wlio were commanded to surrender or be seized as "Trayters to ye King and Country." The official report to the Eng- lish government regarding those who had suf- fered by Bacon's rebellion, made m March, 1677-78, described "Major Richard Lee" as "a Loyall, Discreet Person worthy of the Place to which bee was lately advanced of being one of his Majesties Council in Virginia." The second Richard Lee was a burgess in 1677 and ]:)erhaps earlier. He was a councillor in 1676, 1680-83, 1688, 1692-98 and possibly later. In 1691, out of a scruple of conscience arising from his attachment to the Stuarts and refusal to acknowledge the claim of William and Mary to the crown, Richard Lee, together with Isaac Allerton and John Armistead, refused tf take the oaths, and he was therefore dropped from the council. In the following year, how- ever, his name again appears on the records as a member of that body. According to a list of colonial officers, dated June 8, 1699, "Richard Lee. Esqr.," had been appointed by "Sir Edm. : Andros, Governor, &c., to be naval Officer and Receiver of Virginia Dutys for