Charles Lee (1758 – June 24,
1815) was an American
lawyer from
Virginia. He served as
United States Attorney
General from 1795 until 1801.
Charles
was born to Henry (1729-1787) and Lucy
(Grymes) Lee on his father's plantation of Leesylvania in
Prince
William County, Virginia
. He was the third of eleven children and a
younger brother of General
Henry "Light
Horse Harry" Lee. Another brother was
Congressman Richard
Bland Lee. A third cousin was
Zachary
Taylor.
He graduated from the College of New Jersey
(later Princeton
University
) in 1775, and then read law
with Jared Ingersoll in Philadelphia
before returning to Virginia.
Charles married Anne Lee (1 December 1770-9 September 1804), a
cousin and the daughter of
Richard
Henry Lee (his first cousin once removed) in 1789. Before her
death in 1804 the couple had six children; Anne Lucinda Lee
(1790-1845), Infant Son Lee (1791-1791), Richard Henry Lee (Feb
1793-Mar 1793), Charles Henry Lee (b. Oct 1794), William Arthur Lee
(b. Sept 1796), Alfred Lee (1799-1865). He married a second time in
1809, to Margaret Scott (1783-1843), and had three more children in
this union; Robert Eden Lee (1810-1843), Elizabeth Gordon Lee
(1813-1813), Alexander Lee (1815-1815).
President Washington
appointed Lee the Attorney General after
William Bradford died in
office. After Senate approval he took office on
December 10 1795 and served
through the rest of the administration. He was continued in office
by
John Adams and served through the
entire Adams administration until
February
19 1801.
During his
term in office Lee lived in Alexandria
, which was then part of the capital
district. He was an early advocate for the return of
the southern part of the District of Columbia
to Virginia
which
finally happened in 1847. After his time as Attorney
General, he became the port officer for the District of the
Potomac and among the most prominent
trial lawyers in Northern Virginia and the District of
Columbia.
Lee represented
William Marbury and
other appointees of
John Adams in
Marbury v. Madison, the landmark case against the
Jefferson administration for unfulfilled political appointments.
Simultaneously, he defended Hugh Stuart in
Stuart v. Laird.
He
declined Thomas Jefferson's offer
to appoint him a justice of the Supreme
Court
.
Lee died
in 1815 in Fauquier County, Virginia
, aged 56 or 57, and is buried in the Warrenton
Cemetery in Warrenton
.
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