Richard Lee was born in approximately 1765, entering the Royal Navy at the age of just 12 as a midshipman on the sloop HMS Speedwell, then captained by Commander John Harvey.

Later in the year, Rodney's fleet sailed to New York City and en route seized the captured armed Jamaica ship Lion.

Lee was made master of Lion and cruised the coastline near Sandy Hook, on one occasion fighting a brief engagement with the American privateer Retaliation, which was driven into Neversink.

After three years unemployed, Lee returned to service in early 1805, taking over the 74-gun HMS Courageux and joining the squadron under Sir Richard Strachan in the Bay of Biscay.

Over the next several years, Lee was employed in the blockade of the Tagus, assisting the flight of the Portuguese Royal family in 1807 and negotiating peace with the Spanish forces in the Rio de la Plata.

In 1809, after his return to Britain, Lee joined the disastrous Walcheren Expedition, and remained in Monarch in the North Sea until 1812, when his ship was deemed no longer serviceable and broken up.