The Lee family boasts perhaps the most distinguished ancestry on record, having provided, for example, greater numbers of Revolutionary and Civil War generals and officers, politicians, and statesmen than any family of comparable size and standing. Colonel Richard Lee, Secretary of the Colony of Virginia and presumably a Counsellor to King Charles, was the progenitor of the Virginia Lees and was himself descended from the Coton branch of the Lees of Shropshire. The purpose of this volume is to collect and preserve in permanent form the history of Colonel Lee's posterity, believing that such a record will add something of interest to American history.