THIRTEENTH GENERATION

4096. John LEE⁽⁸²⁾ died in Feb 1630 in England. He was born in Worchestershire, England. From the book by Paul C. Nagel, former Director of the Virginia Historical Association and and author several historical books, one THE LEE'S OF VIRGINIA. This information came from that book.
The story of Richard Lee, the founder in Virginia, glows with success. His achievement was the sort many residents of seventeenth-century England yearned to duplicate. They peered across the Atlantic drawn by hopes for wealth and eminence said to be found along the James River. Of course, there were other colonists whose careers are too easily ingored. For some, Virginia was a last hope, and outlet for desperation, while many had nto even a choice in the matter. They often arrived in chains with no future except to toll for their betters. But of those who came freely carrying ambition. talent and industry few who survived the New World's rigors had the good luck that transformed Richard Lee from a Britisher of modest beginnings into a Virginia of hoghest standing.
Not until recently has the extent of Richard's triumph been uncovered. Lee family tradition had long insisted that Richard could clain and illustrious background. But the story arose from myth rather than genealogy, since the emigrant himself left, no information about who his parents were. Furthermore, generations of Lees did not know even the mane of Richard''s spouce, Anne Cinstable, let alone anything about her.
According to a legend Richard helped to foster, he was from Shropshire, a county bordeting Wales and located about one hundred niles northwest of London. In the seventeenth century the area had several Lee families, two of whom used the arms of Reuner de Lega or de Le', a Norman prominent around 1200. From these lines Richard was alleged to have descented and his birthplace to have been Coton Hall in manor of Nordley Regis, although thos who wove the story could never offer a convincing date for Richards's birth.
Family tradition goes on to tell of a Gilbert Lee, sad to be Richard;s uncle, who left Shropshire for London, where he prospered as a sea captian and then as a nerchant. This Gilbert Lee cied childless sometime after 1621, leaving his considerable estate to a nephew, John Lee, who carried on the business. John is supposed tto have brought his counsin Richard down from Shrophire to learn the ways of London. With this experience, Richard presumably sailed for Virginia.
While it may have gratified earlier Lees' thus to believe that the family founder grew up genteel surroundings on a manor in Shropshire, there is no evidence to authenticat this tradition. Instead, thhe recent identification of Richard's parents show that he was from Worcestershire.

4097. Jane HANCOCK⁽⁸³⁾ died in 1639 in England. She was born in England. Children were:

i. John LEE⁽⁸⁴⁾ was born in Sep 1616 in Worchestershire, England. He died in England.
2048 ii. Richard LEE.
iii. Thomas LEE⁽⁸⁵⁾.

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