He held the Chair for the shortest period of any holder to date, resigning from his position immediately after giving his opening address.

[1] He was educated at Galashiels, chiefly by the Reverend Robert Balmer, until in 1806, at age thirteen, he went to the University of Edinburgh, from which he graduated MD in 1814.

[2] After his graduation he was appointed Physician's Clerk to James Hamilton, Professor of Midwifery at the University of Edinburgh, a position he relinquished in 1817.

In 1824 Lee accepted an appointment as personal physician to Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, Governor-General of the Crimea.

Through the offices of William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, Lee was appointed Regius Professor of Midwifery at the University of Glasgow in 1834.