and he was designated for the next vacant
judgeship. Accordingly, on the removal of
Keynolds to the exchequer [see Reynolds, James, 1686-1739] he was called to the
degree of serjeant-at-law 5 June 1780, and
the next day sworn in as a puisne judge of
the king's bench. He declined the customary
honour of knighthood, and only accepted it
on his elevation to the chiefjusticeship of his
court, in succession to Lord Hardwicke, 8 June
1737, when he was sworn of the privy council Though not exactly a great judge, he
proved himself able, patient, and impartial.
As long as Lord Hardwicke presided in the
king's bench, Lee's functions were almost entirely reduced to expressing his concurrence
with the decisions of his chief; it was only
as chief justice that he had scope to display
to full advantage his thorough and minute
knowledge of the common law and his strict
judicial integrity. His name is associated
with few cases of public interest. He decided, however, that a female householder is
entitled to vote for, and eligible to serve as,
the sexton of a parish, and thus laid the foundation of the parochial and municipal franchises of women ; and by a series of decisions
he did much to place the law of pauper settlements on a satisfactory basis. He presided
over the special commission which sat at St.
Margaret's, Hill Street, Southwark, in July
1746, to try the Jacobite rebels, and in the
course of these trials decided four important
points of law : (1) that a commission in the
army of a foreign state does not entitle the
holder, being an Englishman, to be treated
as a prisoner of war; (2) that no compulsion
short of present fear of death will excuse
participation in a rebellion ; (3) that Scotsmen born in Scotland were not entitled under
the Act of Union to be tried in Scotland ;
(4) that the acceptance of, and acting under,
a commission of excise from the Pretender
was an overt act of treason. His direction
to the jury in the case of William Owen, tried
before him at the Guildhall on 6 July 1752
for seditious libel, has been seriously criticised,
but was the result of a strictly legal, if somewhat narrow, view of the respective functions
of judge and jury. Owen had published a
pamphlet animadverting on the conduct of
the House of Commons in the case of the
Hon. Alexander Murray [q. v.], and Lee, in
summing up, directed the jury in effect that
it was not for them to determine whether
the pamphlet was or was not libellous, that
being a matter of law ; but if they were
satisfied that it had been published by the
defendant, they ought to find him guilty.
The jury, however, refused to take the law
from the chief justice, and, though there was
no doubt of the fact of publication by the
defendant, acquitted him. Upon the death
of Henry Pelham, 6 March 1754> Lee was
appointed chancellor of the exchequer ; but
merely ad interim, and without a seat in
the cabinet. Lee died of an apoplectic stroke
on 8 April following. He was buried on the
17th in Hartwell Church, where a monument
was placed to his memory.
Horace Walpole calls Lee a creature of Lord Hardwicke. This appears to be altogether unfair; although his intimate Mendship with the chancellor probably helped his advancement, his abilities were very highly esteemed by better judges than Walpole. Lord Hardwicke, writing shortly after his death, characterises him as 'an able and most upright magistrate and servant of the crown and public.' His reporter, Burrow, after ascribing to him almost every private virtue, adds that on the bench ' the integrity of his heart and the caution of his determination were so eminent that they never will, perhaps never can, be excelled.' The 1744 edition of the ' Reports of Sir John Comyns 'is dedicated to him in very flattering terms. He was a correspondent of Zachary Grey [q. v.], and a friend of Browne Willis [q. v.], the celebrated antiquary. Some excerpts from his note-books and almanacks, published in the 'Law Magazine.' vols, xxxviii. and xxxix., under the title 'Jotting Book of a Chief Justice,' show that he had read widely and carefully beyond the limits of his professional studies, and was well versed in moral and metaphysical science. His unpublished commonplace book, still preserved at Hartwell, in more than a hundred volumes, attests the assiduity and method with which he prosecuted his studies. He was of a genial and even jovial temperament ; thought good cheer and 'a merry, honest wife the best sort of medicine, and hospitality the best sort of charity. He never spoke in parliament, but steadily supported by his vote the principles of the revolution. For this he would never give any but the humorous reason that he came in with King William (meaning that he was born in the year of that monarch 8 accession), and so was Dound to be a good whig.
Lee married twice : first, Anne, daughter of John Goodwin of Bury St. Edmunds, who died in 1729; secondly, on 12 May 1738, Margaret, daughter or Roger Drake, and widow of James Melmoth, described as 'an agreeable young lady of 25,000l. fortune.' She died in May 1752, and was buried in Hartwell Church". By his first wife Lee had issue an only son, William, who succeeded to the manor of Totteridge, which Lee had purchased in 1748. He had no issue by his
