Francis Lightfoot Lee: The Only Brothers

Four primary documents from the quieter of the two Lee brothers, the man who covered the independence vote while Richard Henry went home, chaired the Valley Forge supply committee, and died four days after his wife at Menokin.

Francis Lightfoot Lee was born October 14, 1734 at Stratford Hall plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia, the fourth surviving son of Thomas Lee. He grew up in the same house as his brother Richard Henry Lee, who would move the resolution for independence in the Continental Congress in June 1776. Francis was educated by tutors, never attended college, and spent his early years managing land in Loudoun County that his father had left him.

He entered the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1758 and represented first Loudoun and then Richmond counties. In 1769, Lee married Rebecca Tayloe and moved to Richmond County, where he built a house called Menokin. He was elected to the Second Continental Congress in 1775, chosen to fill a seat after George Mason declined the appointment.

In June 1776, Richard Henry Lee introduced the resolution declaring the colonies free and independent states. He was then called back to Virginia to help write the Virginia Constitution. Francis remained in Philadelphia to cover the vote and keep his brother informed.

On July 1, 1776, the day before the independence vote, Francis wrote to Richard Henry describing the state of play in Congress. His letter is one of the few eyewitness accounts of the deliberations from the floor of Congress on that day. Both brothers signed the Declaration of Independence, Richard Henry arriving later and signing September 4. They are the only pair of brothers among the fifty-six signers.

During the bitter winter of 1777, with the Continental Army encamped at Valley Forge and the Pennsylvania government resisting congressional requests for food and supplies, Francis Lightfoot Lee became chair of a special congressional committee to support Washington's troops. Lee wrote to the Pennsylvania governor directly, warning that the Continental commissary would levy Pennsylvania farmers if the state did not produce food for the army.

Pennsylvania complied. The army survived Valley Forge. Lee's role in that survival is documented in the Letters of Delegates to Congress at the Library of Congress. He also signed the Articles of Confederation on behalf of Virginia, one of sixteen Declaration signers to sign both documents. He returned to Virginia in 1779 and retired to Menokin.

Lee retired to Menokin in Richmond County, Virginia in 1779 and spent the rest of his life there with his wife Rebecca. He served in the Virginia State Senate from 1778 to 1782 and ran for the United States House of Representatives in 1793 but did not win.

In January 1797, both Francis and Rebecca contracted pleurisy at Menokin. Rebecca died January 7, 1797. Francis died four days later, January 11, 1797, at age sixty-two. They had no children. He left his estate to Richard Henry's son Ludwell. They are buried at the Tayloe family cemetery at Mount Airy plantation near Warsaw, Virginia. Menokin is now preserved and interpreted by the Menokin Foundation.