Thomas Sim Lee
He also held local offices and owned many town lots in Georgetown (which became part of the new federal city, Washington, District of Columbia, and spent his final decades operating "Needwood" plantation in Frederick County, Maryland.
[1][2] In addition to working closely with many of the Founding fathers, he played an important part in the birth of his state and the nation.
General Washington responded suggesting that the money raised be put toward the purchase of much-needed shirts and black neck clothes for the troops in the Southern army.
[6] Thomas Sim Lee participated in the Annapolis Convention in the mid-1770s, which produced a constitution for Maryland and transformed the colony into a state.
On July 26, 1775, he was one of the signatories of the Declaration of the Association of the Freemen of Maryland, an influential statement in the Revolutionary War.
Maryland had previously held out and refused to ratify the Articles until every state had ceded its western land claims.
After Governor Thomas Jefferson signed the Act of the Virginia legislature on January 2, 1781, to grant these concessions the way forward for Maryland was cleared.
On this second day of February, a Friday, as the last piece of business during the afternoon Session, "among engrossed Bills" was "signed and sealed by the Governor, in the Senate Chamber, in the presence of the members of both Houses...an Act to empower the delegates of this state in Congress to subscribe and ratify the articles of confederation."
Complicating matters, in the 1798 census his home was in Montgomery County, and in 1802 in the new District of Columbia, specifically in the Georgetown section in 1804-1807.
After retiring from political life in 1794, Governor Lee focused his attention on his estate, Needwood, in Frederick County, Maryland.
[10] In the same year, Lee also owned 16 slaves in Montgomery County, Maryland, which included Georgetown before creation of the federal city, as discussed below.
Thomas Sim Lee was on the Board of directors of the Patowmack Canal, which George Washington and other members intended to connect the Tidewater near Georgetown with Cumberland.
On October 27, 1771, Thomas Sim Lee married Mary Digges (1745–1805), whose father was a prominent Maryland landowner.
In addition to their patriotic activities during the Revolutionary War described below, they were also very committed to their religion and community and founded the St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Petersville, Maryland.
The World War II Liberty Ship SS Thomas Sim Lee was named in his honor.
