Arson destroyed Lee's home, he used money from Caroline of Ansbach and Britain to build Stratford Hall overlooking the Potomac River.

For less than a year, in 1749 until his death in 1750, Lee served as the de facto royal governor of Virginia in place of the absent William Gooch.

Thomas Lee was born around 1690 at Mount Pleasant, on the Machodoc River in Westmoreland County, Virginia.

Lee's political career began in 1710 when he was appointed Naval Officer of the Northern Potomac River region.

This property consisted of all the land between the Potomac and Rappahnnock rivers, with Lee responsible for collecting the quit-rent.

[6] This lucrative position and multiple accusations of mismanagement led to decades of animosity between the Lee and Carter families.

He leased the "Machodoc" estate from his elder brother Richard Lee III who was then living in London and experiencing severe financial problems.

Lee and his brother Henry negotiated a lease for 99 years on the Machodoc plantation from Richard's widow after his death.

[9] In 1720 Thomas Lee attempted to begin a political career as one of the two Burgesses representing Westmoreland County.

While voters clearly elected George Eskridge, the contest between Thomas Lee and fellow planter Daniel McCarty proved close.

McCarty was also elected as the burgess to accompany George Eskridge in 1723 but died before the 1726 session, so Lee succeeded him.

[7] When Governor William Gooch was recalled to England in 1749, Lee was the longest serving member and thus President of the King's Council of Virginia and Commander-in-Chief of the colony.

[19] The house quickly burned, and Hannah Lee, pregnant with her fourth child, had to be thrown from her chamber window on the second floor.

Lee's political career required trips to Williamsburg, causing him to be away from his family for extended periods.

[24] William, along with Jan de Neufville, drafted an unofficial treaty between the United States and the Dutch Republic which Great Britain used as a casus belli for the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War.

[25] Lee was appointed commissioner, along with William Beverley, to negotiate with the Six Nations of the Iroquois at the Treaty of Lancaster in 1744.

[26] At the treaty, an agreement was made with the Six Nations for 400 pounds (equal to £86,029 today) in return for the right for Virginians to travel through and settle in the Shenandoah Valley.

With Lee's higher rank in society and wealth, he decided he needed to build a mansion to secure his position as one of the Virginia gentry.

[29] Between 1719 and 1746, Lee acquired vast holdings in what are now Fairfax, Fauquier, Prince William, and Loudoun counties.

On November 14, 1750, Thomas Lee died at age sixty and was buried in the old "Burnt House Fields" at Mount Pleasant.