Sir George Lee PC |
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Member of Parliament (MP) for Brackley | |
In office 1733–1742 |
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Member of Parliament (MP) for Devizes | |
In office 1742–1747 |
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Member of Parliament (MP) for Liskeard | |
In office 1747–1754 |
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Member of Parliament (MP) for Launceston | |
In office 1754–1758 |
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Personal details | |
Born | c. 1700 |
Died | 18 December 1758 |
Sir George Lee, PC (c. 1700 – 18 December 1758) was a politician in the Parliament of Great Britain.
He was fifth son of Sir Thomas Lee, 2nd Baronet, who married Alice, daughter and coheiress of Thomas Hopkins, of London; Sir William Lee, the judge, was his elder brother. He entered Clare College, Cambridge, but migrated to Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated on 4 April 1720, and took the degrees of B.C.L. in 1724 and D.C.L. in 1729. On 23 October 1729 he was admitted advocate at Doctors' Commons, and soon obtained a practice.
Lee was Member of Parliament (MP) for Brackley 1733–1742, for Devizes 1742–1747, for Liskeard 1747–1754, and for Launceston 1754–1758.
From 1742 to 1744, Lee was a Lord of the Admiralty, and he was knighted and sworn as a Privy Councilor in 1752. From 1751 to 1757, he was treasurer to Augusta, Princess of Wales.
In 1757, Lee resigned his place of treasurer to the princess dowager, in consequence of the rise into favour of Lord Bute, but his defection attracted little notice, as the princess's adherents had for some time slackened in their opposition to the ministry. When the Duke of Newcastle proposed in to form an administration, with the exclusion of Pitt from office, Lee reluctantly agreed to be chancellor of the exchequer but the duke, almost at once and without the least notice to those who had agreed to join him, abandoned his scheme. On 18 December, Lee died suddenly at his house in St. James's Square, London, and was buried on 28 December in the family vault underneath the east end of Hartwell Church, Buckinghamshire.