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Ensign Thomas Lee II was born in 1639 and baptized September 29, 1644 in Rusper, Sussex County, England. He was the son of Thomas Lee I and his wife Phoebe Brown Lee. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Lee and their three children Jane, Sarah, and Thomas II left England in 1645 for America together with Phoebe’s father William Brown. The senior Thomas Lee died of small pox during the crossing. The widow Phoebe married two more times. First to Greenleaf Larabee and was the mother of five children: Greenfield, John, Elizabeth, Joseph, and Sarah Larabee. Sarah, the half sister of Thomas II, was the grandmother of the diarist Joshua Hempstead. Phoebe married again to a man named Cornish and had two more children, James Cornish and a stillborn. She died in childbirth at Northampton, Massachusetts in 1664. William Brown, his daughter the widow Phoebe Lee, and her children arrived in Saybrook in 1645. According to Glimpses of Saybrook in Colonial Days, by Harriet Chapman Chesebrough “Their afflicted and distressed condition commended to the sympathies of those at the fort and Thomas II was particularly cared for by Matthew Griswold, and followed him to Lyme, where in later years he became a prominent citizen and received on arriving his majority a grant of land on the East side of the river”. A Saybrook 1650 division land lists Thomas Lee (then about age 11) as a grantee. No documentation of the grant details has been found. A close relationship between the Lee and the Griswold families continued throughout the colonial period. About 1670 Thomas Lee II married Sarah Kirtland, daughter of Nathaniel Kirtland of Lynn, Massachusetts. It is probable that the first stage of the Lee house was built at this time. Thomas and Sarah were the parents of three children, John, who wrote the “Dying Charge”, Thomas III (Mr. Justice Lee), and Sarah. His wife Sarah died May 21, 1676 leaving him with three young children. He soon married a second time on July 13, 1676 to Marah Dewolfe. There were eleven more children, four of whom died in childhood. Over the years, during the distribution of Lyme’s common lands, Lee acquired large tracts of upland and salt meadow throughout town. It has been said that he owned one-eight of the town. Records show that Lee was involved in two disputes over land ownership. A dispute between Thomas Lee II and Matthew Griswold Senior (his mentor) over 20 acres of calf pasture land was settled in favor of Lee at a town meeting on November 27, 1675. A town meeting on July 2, 1684 relates a controversy between Mr. Christophers and Thomas Lee over a parcel of land at Black Point. From the records of the October 1685 session of the Connecticut Assembly it is recorded in answer to the petition of Thomas Lee the court declared that the county clerk should handle his execution against Mr. Christophers. In 1686 at New London County Court Lee lost a jury trial and relinquished his claim. Throughout his life Lee was active in town affairs filling numerous offices. In 1685 he was a deputy from Lyme in the Assembly, recorder of town records, surveyor, collector of the minister rate, meat packer-sealer (officer appointed to examine and test weights and measures), Hayward (an officer appointed to keep cattle from breaking through from a town common into enclosed fields, keeper of towns common herd of cattle), lister (assessor), and Ensign of the train band (local militia). Lee’s will was dated June 1703. He left property “Where I now Live” to his youngest son Benjamin (age 10). His vast holdings throughout Lyme were left to his three sons, William, Joseph, and Stephen. The two oldest sons, John and Thomas III had already been given their share. His wife Mary was given one-third of his moveable estate. The daughters were left money. His eldest sons John and Thomas III and his wife were named executors of his will. He died on January 5 1704/5. No gravestone has been found. He was likely buried in one of the old cemeteries in present day Old Lyme. Benjamin to whom the homestead was left must have died before he came of age as no further record of him has been found, nor has any record of Thomas Lee III of gaining possession of the homestead. On May 28, 1705 [LLR 2:236] the executors of the estate, the widow and sons John and Thomas III leased the homestead to son William (age 21 and unmarried) for a period of nine years starting March 1, 1705. At that time Benjamin would have been age 21. Benjamin must have died sometime during the lease period. It would appear the William was left head of the household of his widowed mother and younger siblings. |
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Thomas Lee House c. 1660 |
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East Lyme Historical Society |
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Founded 1897 |
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Created by Barbara Jo McGrath, 2007-8 All Rights Reserved |
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The First Lee In America by Wilbur Beckwith East Lyme Town Historian |
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