Francis Lightfoot Lee
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Thoughtful mind, steady heart:
Francis Lightfoot Lee,
Patriot from the start.
Francis Lightfoot Lee was known to be a quiet, kind, and thoughtful man; and he was often underestimated and overshadowed by his more outspoken brother. As a lad, he liked to read, and he became interested in various branches of science and literature. After his father died, he was "placed at an early age under the care of the Reverend Doctor Craig, a Scotch clergyman of eminent piety and learning. His excellent tutor not only educated his head but his heart, and laid the foundation of character, upon which the noble superstructure, which his useful life exhibited, was reared."
"Possessed of ample wealth, he used it like a philosopher and a Christian in dispensing its blessings for the benefit of his country and his fellow men." Lives of the Signers, B. J. Lossing, 1848
As a close associate of Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry, his philosophical words and stability contributed much in the thoughts of the patriots and acted to counterbalance his more fiery-tempered brother, Richard Henry. After signing the Declaration of Independence, Frank returned to Virginia to continue his political career.
In 1785, he forgot about politics in favor of an unhurried country life. He and his wife raised the daughters of his infirm brother, William. It was in 1797 that his life was terminated by an attack of pleurisy; and just a few days later, his wife died from the same disease. They are both buried in the Tayloe family graveyard at Mount Airy.
One of Frank's nieces described her uncle as the "Sweetest of all the Lee race...Thy temper's as soft as the doves..." Copyright © 2002-2006 by Stratford Hall Plantation, all rights reserved Robert E. Lee Memorial Association, Inc. 483 Great House Road Stratford, Virginia 22558 "It is said, that he had embraced the religion of the gospel, and that under its supporting hope and consolation, he made his exit in peace from the world." Rev. Charles A. Goodrich Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence. New York: William Reed & Co., 1856. Pages 416-418.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
by Mark Twain
/The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, I, no. 3 (1877).
Repr. in Charles Neider, ed., "Mark Twain: Life as I Find It" (New York, 1961) .
This man’s life-work was so inconspicuous, that his name would now be wholly forgotten, but for one thing – he signed the Declaration of Independence. Yet his life was a most useful and worthy one. It was a good and profitable voyage, though it left no phosphorescent splendors in its wake.
A sketch of Francis Lightfoot Lee can be useful for but one purpose, as showing what sort of material was used in the construction of congressmen in his day; since to sketch him is to sketch the average congressman of his time.
He came of an old and excellent family; a family which had borne an unsullied name, and held honorable place on both sides of the water; a family with a reputation to preserve and traditions to perpetuate; a family which could not afford to soil itself with political trickery, or do base things for party or for hire; a family which was able to shed as much honor upon official station as it received from it.
He dealt in no shams; he had no ostentations of dress or equipage; for he was, as one may say, inured to wealth. He had always been used to it. His own ample means were inherited. He was educated. He was more than that – he was finely cultivated. He loved books; he had a good library, and no place had so great a charm for him as that. The old Virginia mansion which was his home was also the home of that old-time Virginian hospitality which hoary men still hold in mellow memory. Over their port and walnuts he and his friends of the gentry discussed a literature which is dead and forgotten now, and political matters which were drowsy with the absence of corruption and “investigations.” Sundays he and they drove to church in their lumbering coaches, with a due degree of grave and seemly pomp. Week-days they inspected their domains, ordered their affairs, attended to the needs of their dependents, consulted with their overseers and tenants, busied themselves with active benevolences. They were justices of the peace, and performed their unpaid duties with arduous and honest diligence, and with serene, unhampered impartiality toward a society to which they were not beholden for their official stations. In short, Francis Lightfoot Lee was a gentleman – a word which meant a great deal in his day, though it means nothing whatever in ours.
Mr. Lee defiled himself with no juggling, or wire-pulling, or begging, to acquire a place in the provincial legislature, but went thither when he was called, and went reluctantly. He wrought there industriously during four years, never seeking his own ends, but only the public’s. His course was purity itself, and he retired unblemished when his work was done. He retired gladly, and sought his home and its superior allurements. No one dreamed of such a thing as “investigating” him. http://www.menokin.org/historytext.htm#twain
Robert G. Ferris (editor), Signers of the Declaration: Historic Places Commemorating the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, published by the Department of the Interior, National Park Service: Washington, D.C. (revised edition 1975), page 90-91 Image above by Ole Erekson, Engraver, c1876, Library of Congress
