Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/699

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
LEE
LEE
663

trial. He was appointed to the Salisbury circuit in 1784, and accompanied Bishop Asbury on a tour of labor that extended from Norfolk, Va., to the ex- treme southwest of North Carolina. Together they reorganized the various circuits that nearly had been destroyed by the war. After three years in North Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey, and Mary- land, he was sent in 1781) to Stamford circuit, Conn., where his preaching excited general attention. Having visited and established classes in Norwalk, New Haven, and several adjacent towns, he arrived in Boston in 1790, and preached his first sermon on the common. For six years he travelled throughout New England, preaching in barns, private houses, and on the highway, forming new circuits and directing the labors of his assistants. He became an assistant to Bishop Asbury in 1796, and held conferences and superintended churches. His subsequent life was passed for the most part in the south as pastor and presiding elder. In 1808 he advocated a delegated general conference, a plan that he had urged fourteen years before, and on its adoption the general conference became the su- Sreme authority of the Methodist Episcopal church. [e was chaplain of the U. S. house of representa- tives in 1807, 1812, and 1813, and from 1814 until his death he was chaplain of the U. S. senate. Lee's labors in New England earned him the title of the "Apostle of Methodism." He published "A History of Methodism " (1807), which was the first work on the subject, and an authority in the early history of that church. See "Life and Times of Jesse Lee," by Leroy M. Lee (Richmond, Va.. 1848). — His nephew, Leroy Madison, clergyman, b. in Petersburg, Va.. 30 April, 1808; d. in Ash- land, Va., 20 April, 1882, studied law, but entered the ministry of the Methodist church in 1828. He occupied many important stations in the Virginia conference till 183(3, when he became editor of the Richmond " Christian Advocate." He was a mem- ber of the general conference in 1844, took an ac- tive part in the events that resulted in the division of the church, and represented the Virginia con- ference in the Louisville, Ky., conference of 1845, when the organization of the Methodist church, south, was effected. He retired from the editorial management of the "Christian Advocate " in 1858, resumed the work of the itinerant ministry, and became in 1874 presiding elder of the Petersburg district of the Virginia conference. Besides oc- casional sermons, and the life of his uncle, men- tioned above, he published " Advice to a Young Convert " (Richmond, 1834); and "The Great Sup- per not Calvanistic " (1855).


LEE, Luther, clergyman, b. in Schoharie. N. Y.. 30 Nov., 1800. He joined the Methodist Episcopal church in 1821, soon began to preach, and in 1827 entered the Genesee conference, becoming an itin- erant missionary, preacher, and successful temper- ance lecturer. He began to preach against slavery in 1836, was mobbed several times, and in 1841 established and edited " The New England Christian Advocate," an anti-slavery journal, at Lowell, Mass. He subsequently edited" The Sword of Truth," and in 1842 seceded from the Methodist church, began a weekly journal, "The True Wesleyan," and when the Wesleyan Methodist connection was organized, became pastor of that church in Syra- cuse, N. Y. He was the first president of the first general conference of the new church, was editor of the organ of that body, "The True Wesleyan," till 1852, and after that date was successively pastor of churches in Syracuse and Fulton, N. Y. In 1854-'o he edited a periodical entitled " The Evan- gelical Pulpit." He became president and profes- sor of theology in the Michigan union college at Leoni in 1856, resigning the next year to officiate in churches in Ohio. From 1864 till 1867 he was connected with Adrian college, Mich., and at the latter date returned to the Methodist Episcopal church, slavery, which was the cause of the or- ganization of the Wesleyan connection, having ceased to exist. Since 1867 he has been a member of the Michigan conference, and is now (1887) su- perannuated. His publications include " Universal- ism Examined and Refuted" (New York, 1836); "The Immortality of the Soul" (1846); "Revival Manual " (1850) ; "Church Polity " (1850); "Slav- ery Examined in the Light of the Bible " (1855) ; and " Elements of Theology " (1856).


LEE, Richard, statesman, b. in Shropshire, England, about 1590; d. in Virginia after 1660, was descended, in the ninth generation, from Sir Walter Lee, of Lee Hall, parish of Widenburg, Cheshire, who was living in 1330, and whose ancestors had long been seated at the same place. Walter's descendant, Sir Robert Lee, of Hulcoto. Bucks, b. 15 June, 1543; d. in August, 1616, married, in 1561, Lucy, daughter of Thomas Pigott, of Beau- champton, and had eight sons. The eldest, Sir Henry, was one of the first baronets created by James I. in 1612, and was grandfather of Sir Ed- ward, raised to the peerage in 1674 as Earl of Lichfield. The seventh, Richard, the subject of this article, was member of the privy council of Charles I., and early in the reign of that monarch emigrated to Virginia with a number of followers, whom he settled upon lands improved at his own expense. He made several voyages to England, bringing back settlers each time, and finally made his home in Northumberland county. For many years he was secretary to Sir William Berkeley. On the death of Charles I., Berkeley and Leo declared allegiance to his son, and invited the fugitive royalists to come to Virginia. More than 300 came toward the end of 1649. In the following year Charles II. was invited to come himself to Virginia as its ruler. In 1652 the victorious parliament sent an expedition to Virginia, and a treaty was made in virtue of which Berkeley was removed and a provisional government established. While Charles II. was at Breda, Lee visited him there, to learn whether he could undertake to protect the colony in case it should again declare its allegiance to him ; but, as no assurance of support could be obtained, he returned to Virginia, and took no further measures until Cromwell's death. Berkeley and Lee then issued a proclamation of allegiance to Charles II. as "King of England, France, Scotland, Ireland, and Virginia." The assembly nevertheless consulted the dictates of prudence in acknowledging obedience to Richard Cromwell. In recognition of its loyalty, Charles afterward allowed Virginia to quarter its arms with those of England, France, Scotland, and Ireland, with the motto " En dat Virginia quintam " ; after the union of England with Scotland, in 1707, this was changed to " En dat Virginia quartern." " Behold. Virginia makes the fourth." Hence, according to the younger Richard Henry Lee, the title of " Old Dominion," often given to Virginia. According to William Lee, his great-grandson, the founder of the Lees of Virginia was "a man of good stature, comely visage, enterprising genius, sound head, vigorous spirit, and generous nature " — qualities that may be recognized in many of his descendants. — His second son, Richard, d. in Virginia after 1690, was educated at Oxford, and devoted his life to study, being especially proficient in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. He was a member