Thomas Ludwell Lee

The man later known as "Colonel Phil" would be the first of her sons to survive, and he returned to Virginia from England (where he had graduated from Eton and was studying law) upon his father's death in late 1750.

Col. Phil then assumed responsibility for this boy and his other orphaned younger siblings, as well as operated Stratford Hall and associated plantations he inherited mostly pursuant to primogeniture (including more than 12,000 acres in Northumberland and Stafford Counties in Virginia as well as acreage on Maryland's Eastern Shore and two islands) and many slaves (including over 100 at the 2800 acre Stratford plantation alone).

Colonel Phil would be named to Virginia's Council of State in 1757, and increased his landholdings in 1763 by marrying his heiress ward, but he became unpopular with his younger siblings for the slow pace at which he settled their father's estate, contrasted with his lavish entertainments at Stratford Hall.

[3] His older sister had been born at the family's Machodoc plantation in Westmoreland County and named Hannah Ludwell Lee (1729-1782) to honor her mother, who was highly involved in raising Philip and Hannah and running the family's estates during her husband's long absences on family and government business, but much less involved in raising their six youngest children, possibly in part from distress because arson burned the Machodoc plantation house later in 1729, necessitating temporary stays with various Lee relatives during Stratford Hall's completion and the family's resettlement.

[6] Thomas Ludwell Lee resided at Belleview, a plantation in Stafford County, Virginia, and farmed using enslaved labor.

Stafford County voters elected Thomas Ludwell Lee as one of their delegates to the House of Burgesses in 1758, and he won re-election once before returning to private life.

[8] Colonel Philip Lee, who always considered England "home", fell ill with a "nervous pleurisy" shortly after New year's day 1775 and died on February 21, 1775.

John Alexander (who had replaced Thomas Ludwell Lee as Burgess from Stafford County) also died, so Thomas Ludwell Lee returned to at what proved to be the last session of the House of Burgesses, for Virginia's governor suppressed the assembly.

[10] He then continued his political involvement as one of Stafford County's representatives to the Third, Fourth and Fifth Virginia Conventions.

John Adams, quoting George Wythe, once said that Lee was "the delight of the eyes of every Virginian, but would not engage in public life.