Reverend Dr John Lee FRSE (22 November 1779 – 2 May 1859) was a Scottish academic and polymath, and the Principal of the University of Edinburgh from 1840 to 1859.

[3] After acting for a few months as pastor of a Presbyterian chapel on Hanover Street in London he was ordained as minister of Peebles Parish church in April 1808 in place of Rev Dr William Dalgleish.

[4] He continued to lecture at the University of St Andrews intending to travel regularly between the two, however, he had a change of heart following a near-fatal accident when his coach overturned en route to Aberdeen.

[6] In 1821, Lee resigned both professorships and, aided by the granting of an honorary Doctor of Divinity from the University of St Andrews, and accepted a position as minister of the Canongate Church in Edinburgh.

[2] In 1825 he was translated from the Canongate to Lady Yester's Church in south Edinburgh, and was appointed a chaplain in ordinary to the king in 1830.

In 1834 he became minister of the Old Kirk, one of the four churches then contained in St. Giles Cathedral, in 1837 Principal of the United College, St Andrews, and in 1840 Dean of the Chapel Royal in Stirling.

[4] He is buried in the south-west section of St Cuthberts Churchyard in Edinburgh, next to the Balfour Paul monument.

Lee was accomplished in almost every branch of knowledge,[citation needed] and in Scottish literary and ecclesiastical history had very detailed information.