William Lea (businessman)

William Lea (May 17, 1805 – December 28, 1876) was a member of a prominent flour milling family in Wilmington, Delaware, who was largely responsible for the development of the Brandywine Mills to their place of importance.

He was a descendant of John Lea, a prominent Quaker minister from England, who came to America with William Penn on his second voyage.

Lea was first employed with his father in the firm of Tatnall and Lea, founded in the 1760s on the north bank on the Brandywine Creek by his father and grandfather, and then at Manayunk, Pennsylvania; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Terre Haute, Indiana.

He was greatly interested in the improvement of Brandywine Village, in which he lived, and favored its annexation to the city of Wilmington as the Ninth Ward.

The Superfine Lane Condominiums (named for the grade of flour produced by the Quaker millers) were built in 1984 and incorporated the foundations of the old William Lea and Sons flour mills, which continued to operate 1923.