In 1789 he was chosen the first senator from Virginia. He died at Chantilly, Westmoreland, in that state, in 1794. His Life, by R. H. Lee, was published in 1825.—R. H.
LEE, Samuel, a nonconformist divine, born in London in 1625, educated first at St. Paul's school, and afterwards at Magdalen hall, Oxford, where he took his degree of M.A., and became fellow of Wadham college, and proctor of the university in 1656. It was about this time he compiled his "Temple of Solomon," which was printed at the desire of the university. On his removal to London he was incumbent of Bishopsgate till the act of uniformity in 1662, when he was ejected and silenced. He became the minister of a congregation of Independents at Newington Green, where he continued for a number of years; but about 1686 the unsettled state of affairs led him to resolve upon emigration, and he went to New England. After being pastor at Bristol for some time he heard of the Revolution, and made up his mind to come back to England. Off the Irish coast they fell in with a French privateer, by which the ship was captured, and taken with its crew and passengers to St. Malos, where they were thrown into prison. Some time after the prisoners were released, with the exception of Mr. Lee, who was for some cause left behind; but he so took to heart his confinement and separation from his wife and family, that he was attacked with fever, which carried him off in a few days at the age of fifty-five, November, 1691. Besides "Solomon's Temple," he published sermons, a "Life of John Rowe," "Israel Redux," in which he seeks to show that the Tartars are descended from the ten lost tribes, &c. He bore an excellent character for piety, charity, and learning.—B. H. C.
LEE, Samuel, D.D., regius professor of Hebrew in the university of Cambridge, an author of great eminence in biblical and oriental learning, was born May 14, 1783, at Longnor in Shropshire. He was sent to the village school where he learned reading, writing, and arithmetic, and went at the age of twelve to learn the trade of a carpenter and builder at Shrewsbury. While working at this trade he became anxious to understand the Latin quotations he sometimes met with, and the sight of some Latin books at a Roman catholic chapel deepened his desire; he therefore purchased Ruddiman's Latin Grammar at a book-stall, and learned it. From this he proceeded to other books; and, when he had mastered them, began the study of the Greek with the Westminster Grammar, and in a similar way succeeded in acquiring the language. He then took up the Hebrew, and subsequently the Chaldee, Syriac, and Samaritan. All these he learned by himself while working at his trade before he was twenty-five years of age, and with the most straitened resources. He next went into Worcestershire, where he got married, and sold off his books; but the loss of his chest of tools led him to set up as schoolmaster. Soon after this he attracted the attention of Archdeacon Corbett and Dr. Jonathan Scott, both of whom have left interesting accounts of his early life, and both of whom rendered him material assistance. Through their kindness he was enabled to study Arabic, Persian, and Hindoostanee, as well as some European and other languages. He next became a schoolmaster at Shrewsbury, and in 1813 obtained an engagement with the Church Missionary Society, and admission to Queen's college, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. in 1817, on which occasion his examination by Dr. Buchanan procured for him great applause. As a proof of his marvellous powers of learning, it is affirmed that he mastered Euclid in a fortnight. Having entered into orders he preached at Shrewsbury in 1818, before which he had edited the Syriac New Testament, a Malay New Testament, a Hindoostanee Prayer-book, Tracts in Persian, Arabic, Malay, and Hindoostanee, part of a Persian Liturgy, &c. Besides these he had made progress with a Persian Old Testament, a Hindoostanee New Testament, an Ethiopic Bible, and other works. At that time he is said to have been master of eighteen languages. In 1819 he was appointed professor of Arabic at Cambridge; in 1822 he was made D.D. of Halle; in 1823 chaplain of Cambridge gaol; in 1825 rector of Bilton with Harrogate; in 1834 regius professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, having been made D.D. of the same university the year preceding. In 1852, December 16, he died at Barley in Hertfordshire, of which he had been some time rector. He is truly said to have been one of the most remarkable instances on record of perseverance in self-education under the most embarrassing circumstances, rewarded at last by the hightest success in the honourable career he had chosen. One critic describes him as "an oriental scholar of European fame, a sound theologian, and mighty in the scriptures; a man of whom his country may be proud, and whom his countrymen may well delight to honour. He was master of a greater number of languages probably than any other individual of his age; possessed of greater erudition, and endowed with a singularly acute and philosophic turn of mind; an independent thinker, and most enthusiastic in all philological pursuits." His publications were very numerous, and some of them highly useful. His Hebrew Grammar and Lexicon stand higher than his expository works; his Syriac Old and New Testament is the best we have.—B. H. C.
LEE, Sarah, formerly Bowdich, née Wallis, married at twenty-one Mr. T. E. Bowdich the well-known African traveller—(see Bowdich, Thomas Edward)—and accompanied him in his second visit to Africa. During her residence at Cape Coast Castle, of which her uncle was governor, she collected the material for a series of "Stories of Strange Lands," illustrative of African life. She wrote a number of works on natural history, chiefly for the use of the young; the most valuable of them is her "History of British Fresh-water Fishes." During her husband's lifetime and after his death, she had been an inmate of Cuvier's house; and in the preparation of her interesting "Memoirs of Baron Cuvier," published in 1833, she was aided by Humboldt and other eminent men. She married a second time a Mr. Lee, and her later years seem to have been clouded by disease and, in spite of her industry, by poverty. In 1854 she received a pension of £50 from the crown through Lord Aberdeen, and died at Cork in September, 1856.—F. E.
LEE, Sophia and Harriett, two sisters, are chiefly remembered for their joint-authorship of "The Canterbury Tales." Sophia was born in London in 1750; Harriett in 1756. Their father was an actor, who had been allured to the stage by the success of Garrick, and seems to have been a person of considerable acquirements and of good character. With this theatrical connection Sophia turned to the drama; her first novel, though written early in life, not being published till long afterwards. In 1780 her "Chapter of Accidents," a comedy, was performed at the Haymarket with great success. The profits of the play she prudently devoted to the establishment of a young ladies' academy at Bath, for the management of which she was every way fitted, having performed in the family the part of the mother early lost to them. The academy at Bath prospered, and enabled the sisters to retire in 1803 with an independence. They settled first in the neighbourhood of Tintern Abbey, and then at Clifton, where Sophia died on the 12th of March, 1824, and Harriett, long surviving her, on the 1st of August, 1851. Of the works of the sisters—plays, poems, and fictions—only two deserve a mention; one is Sophia's novel of "The Recess," published in 1785, "a tale of other times," the Elizabethan, and which has been called our earliest historical novel. The other was a joint-production, "The Canterbury Tales," 1797-1805, from one of which—"The German's tale, Kruitzner"—Lord Byron took, with due acknowledgments and praises of its power, the story of his Tragedy of Werner. The two sisters are said to have been among the first to encourage the talents and predict the eminence of Sir Thomas Lawrence.—F. E.
LEE or LEA, William, has strong claims to be considered the inventor of the stocking-frame; next to the common warp and weft loom, thought to be the oldest machine in existence applicable to textile fabrics. According to one tradition he was a native of Woodborough, about seven miles from Nottingham, a man of good estate and a graduate of St. John's college, Cambridge. Enamoured of a young girl, who during his visits paid more attention to her knitting than to his conversation, he invented the knitting machine in 1589. Certain it is that in Cromwell's time, the stocking-weavers of London presented a petition to him for their incorporation as a guild; and in the history of their trade which it includes, they ascribe the invention of the stocking-frame to Lee. Further, in the Stocking-weavers' Hall in London there long hung a painting in which Lee is represented pointing out his loom to a female knitter standing near it, while below was an inscription which assigned the invention to him. He is said to have established himself as a stocking-weaver at Calverton, near Nottingham, and after remaining there five years, during which he in vain invoked the countenance and support of Queen Elizabeth, to have migrated with his machinery to France, where he was welcomed by Henri Quatre. After the assassination of
