Born at Cobham, Surrey on 12 March 1661, he was the fourth son of Edward Lee by his wife Frances.
He entered Merchant Taylors' School on 11 September 1675, was admitted a scholar of St John's College, Oxford, on St. Barnabas day, 1679, proceeded B.A.
His elder brother, William, a dyer in Spitalfields, tried to break the connection, but about 1696 Lee, at Leade's suggestion, married her daughter Barbara Walton, a widow, and later lived in her house in Hogsden Square.
He edited, and with Richard Roach wrote, the Theosophical Transactions issued by the society between March and November 1697.
The meetings of the society in Baldwin's Gardens became so crowded that they were moved to Hungerford Market and Westmoreland House.
[1] He died intestate on 23 August 1719 of fever at Gravelines in French Flanders, on a visit which included meeting Jeanne Guyon.
[2] His estate was administered by William Lee in October 1719, in favour of his widow and his only daughter, Deborah Jemima, who became the wife of James de la Fontaine.
An account of Jane Leade's last days, by Lee, was published in a German translation in Amsterdam, but does not appear to be extant.