Philip Lee, Sr.

Philip Corbin Lee (1681–1744), although born to the prominent Lee family of Virginia became a planter in Maryland, as well as naval officer and served in both houses of the Maryland General Assembly. He is sometimes considered the forebear of the Maryland or Blenheim Lees, although that manor house was built by his successors. He is not to be confused with his nephew Philip Ludwell Lee, the eldest son of his brother Thomas Lee, who built Stratford Hall in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Early and family life The second son born to the former Laetitia Corbin (c. 1657-1706) and her husband Colonel Richard Lee II (1647–1715), at his father's "Paradise" plantation in Gloucester County. Both his maternal grandfather Henry Corbin and his paternal grandfather Richard Lee I, were British merchants who came to own large tracts of land in the Virginia colony and had seats on the Virginia Governor's Council, as would this man's younger brother Thomas and successor generations. His eldest brother, Richard Lee III remained in England after his education, and became a merchant with his uncle Thomas Corbin as the firm of Corbin and Lee, handling tobacco sent from the family's vast plantations in Maryland and Virginia (as well as from others) and shipping manufactured goods back. His younger brother Dr. Francis Lee became a physician. Career