Westmoreland County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Biographies.....Lee, Richard Henry 1732 - 1794 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Alice Warner http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00015.html#0003503 August 22, 2008, 2:22 pm Author: T. R. Roberts Lee, Richard Henry, 1732-1794, an American statesman and orator, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was born in the county of Westmoreland, Virginia, U.S.A., and came of a Welsh family. He was educated in England, and, after his return, was elected about 1757 to the House of Burgesses in Virginia. In 1765, he eloquently defended the resolutions against the Stamp Act, introduced by Patrick Henry. He was a delegate from Virginia, in 1774, to the Continental Congress, and took a prominent part in the proceedings of that body. The memorial to the people of British America, authorized by the Continental Congress, is attributed to his pen. In June, 1776, he introduced into Congress the measure declaring the Colonies free and independent States, which motion he supported by a most powerful and eloquent speech. He was again elected to Congress in 1778, he became president of that body in 1784, and was elected a United States senator from Virginia in 1789. (Wales and its People ; Lippincott.) See Goodrich's Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence ; Memoirs of the Life of R. H. Lee, by his grandson, R. H. Lee, 2 vols (1825) ; North American Review for April, 1826 (by Edward Everett) ; Y Brython, vol. 5, p. 270 ; Wales, vol. 3, p. 18 ; Ibid, v. 1, p. 282. Additional Comments: Eminent Welshmen: A Short Biographical Dictionary of Welshmen Who Have Attained Distinction From the Earliest Times to the Present, by T. R. Roberts; 1908 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/westmoreland/bios/lee154gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/vafiles/ File size: 2.1 Kb