LidSquireRichardLee

Richard's library is taken from his estate inventory, conducted 8 October 1795. Unfortunately the largest portion of titles, "72 dissorted books" is not delineated more specifically. Other titles almost certainly came from his father's library.

Tags have been added as appropriate.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Do you know of additional books which should be included here? Please contact Libraries of Early America coordinator Jeremy Dibbell.

Squire Richard Lee IV (1726-1795), Virginia planter. The second son of Henry Lee and Mary Bland, and a favorite cousin of Hannah Lee Corbin (he would serve as the guardian of her children after her death).

A longtime member of the House of Burgesses (1757-58, 1762, 1769, 1772, 1774), Squire Richard also sat in the Conventions of 1775-76, and in the House of Delegates (1777, 1780, 1784-7, 1790, 1793). Richard was also a justice of the peace, a vestryman of Cople Parish, and a naval officer.

Squire Richard inherited his father's plantation of Lee Hall, and acquired many additional lands in Virginia. A longtime bachelor, he was known for his rough manners (a young relative wrote in 1772 "He is the veriest Tramontane in nature; if he ever gets married, if his wife civilizes him, she deserves to be Cannonized"). He eventually did get married, to his 16-year old cousin Sally Polythress (1768-1828), and with her had four children (three of whom, all daughters, survived into adulthood).