Richard Lee I
Col. Richard Lee I (1617–1664), later nicknamed "The Immigrant" was the first member of the Lee family to live in America; he emigrated from Shropshire, England to Virginia in 1639. Lee was a lawyer, planter, soldier, politician, and Member of the Virginia House of Burgesses.
By the time of his death, Lee was the largest landholder in Virginia, with 13,000 acres and perhaps the richest man in Virginia.
He was the great-great-great grandfather of Confederate general Robert E. Lee and the great-grandfather of President Zachary Taylor.
Lee arrived in Jamestown at the age of 22 with very little to his name other than the patronage of an influential man, Sir Francis Wyatt, the 1st Governor of Virginia and the great grandson of the poet, Sir Thomas Wyatt, whose brother-in-law Anthony Lee was Richard Lee's ancestor. Once there he became Attorney General of the Colony of Virginia, Colonial Secretary of State, and member of the King's Council.
In 1643 the new Governor, Sir William Berkeley (1606–1677), on the recommendation of Sir Francis Wyatt, appointed Lee as Attorney General of the Colony.
Lee became Clerk of the Quarter Court at Jamestown, within the Secretary of State's office. He was a loyal supporter of King Charles I of England, and his public offices ceased when Oliver Cromwell seized power in England in 1649. In addition, he served as High Sheriff and was a Colonel in the Militia.
He also became a tobacco planter, trader, an owner and trader of slaves, and an employer and importer of English indentured servants (i.e. employees who paid for their passage to America with seven years of labor).
Lee was in the fur trading business with the Indians. Because of this, Lee took his bride away from the capital city, and went to live among the Indians beyond the frontier of settlement. His first patent was for land on the north side of the York River at the head of Poropotank Creek, in what was then York, later Gloucester County. He had received the title to this 1,000 acre (4 km²) tract on 10 August 1642 through the headrights of thirty-eight immigrants unable to pay their own passage, who were brought over by Col. Lee in his own ship on his return from Breda in 1650. However, Lee did not take title to this land until 1646, when there is record of his purchasing 100 acres (0.4 km2) at this location. Lee's first home was on leased land on the same side of the river, at the head of Tindall's Creek near the Indian community of Capahosic Wicomico. However, on 18 April 1644, hordes of Powhatan Indians massacred the newcomers to the area, led by Chief Opchanacanough. They killed 300, but were driven back by a successful counterattack. As a result, the English abandoned the north side of the river.
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