Edward Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield

Edward Henry Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield (4 February, 1663 – 14 July, 1716) was an English peer. He was a staunch tory and followed James II to Rochester, Kent after the king's escape from Whitehall in December 1688. [K. Laughton, ‘Lee, Fitzroy Henry (1699–1750)’, rev. Philip Carter, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004]

Biography

His father was Sir Francis Henry Lee of Ditchley, 4th Baronet of Quarendon, whose grandfather, Henry Lee, was the cousin and heir of Henry Lee of Ditchley. His father's half-brother was the libertine-poet the Earl of Rochester. His mother was born Elizabeth Pope, a daughter of Thomas Pope, 2nd Earl of Downe, in Ireland. After his mother was widowed, she remarried to Robert Bertie, 3rd Earl of Lindsey.

Lee was created Earl of Lichfield in 1674 at the age of ten, a result of his recent betrothal to the daughter of King Charles II. The Lady Charlotte Fitzroy was the fourth of six children born to the king's infamous mistress, the Duchess of Cleveland. Sweet-natured and strikingly beautiful, Charlotte was adored by her father the king despite the fact that she was a bastard. She was contracted at the age of ten to Lee, who was one year older than his bride-to-be. Three years later, having reached puberty, twelve- and thirteen-year-olds were married on the sixth of February, 1676-7.

From 1687 to 1689, Lichfield served as Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire.

Issue

Lady Lichfield bore him at least eleven children, probably more.:Charles, d. in infancy.:Edward, d. unmarried.:James, m. Sarah, daughter of John Bagshaw, and d. in 1711.:Charles, d. unmarried.:George-Henry, successor to his father.:Fitzroy-Henry, d. s. p. in 1720.:Robert, who succeeded his nephew.:Charlotte, m. first, to Benedict Calvert, Lord Baltimore, and secondly, to Christopher Crow, Consul of Leghorn.:Anne.:Barbara, m. first, to Colonel Lee, and secondly, to Sir George Browne, bart.; by the latter she had a daughter,::Barbara Browne, heir of her father, who m. Sir Edward Mostyn, bart. of Talacre.:Elizabeth, m. first, to Francis Lee, and secondly, to Edward Young.

Ancestry

References