Willis Lee (1745 - 1776)

Born 16 Aug 1745 in Warrenton Plantation, Fauquier, Virginia

Ancestors

Died 1776 at about age 30 in Leestown, Kentucky

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Kimberly Fitzpatrick [send private message]

1. Fauquier County, Virginia Established May 1, 1759 Which means our Willis Lee could NOT have been born in Fauquier County....... ^{[citation needed]} "The area we now know as Fauquier County today was listed as part of the Northern Neck of the Colony of Virginia by Captain John Smith in 1608. In 1759 Fauquier County was formed from a portion of Prince William County."

Biography

Killed by Indians while surveying Kentucky

Hancock Lee III came to Kentucky, accompanied by his older brother, Willis Lee and his cousin, Hancock Taylor. They arrived in Kentucky around June 1st to conduct extensive surveys for the Ohio Company. The party traveled to the buffalo crossing at the bend of the Kentucky River, where they established Leestown. The village was to endure significant problems in its formative years. Growth was slow; early settlers into Kentucky used Leestown as a stop-over on their way to Boonesboro and Harrodsburg. The settlement was plagued with the threat of Indian attacks.

Early in July of 1774, Hancock Taylor was killed during an attack and Willis Lee was wounded. Hancock Taylor made his will a few days before he died, leaving his cousin Hancock Lee, part of the lands he had surveyed in Kentucky. In April 1776, a band of Indians suddenly attacked and burned several cabins at Leestown. During this attack, Willis Lee was killed; Cyrus McCracken and Joseph Lindsey were wounded. Indian attacks continued to cause havoc on the residents and in 1777 they temporarily abandoned the Leestown settlement and relocated to Boonesboro.

Parents and Siblings

Hancock (2) Lee, son of Hancock (1) and Sarah (Allerton) Lee, was born in 1709, and died near Warrenton, in Fauquier county, sometime prior to August, 1789. He lived during the later years of his life at Warrenton, in Fauquier county, but when he settled there is not known. In 1729 a Hancock Lee patented three hundred and ninety-three acres in King William county, and sold four hundred in 1751 for one hundred and fifteen pounds sterling. One of the name was justice for King George county, in 1745.
He married in 1733, Mary, daughter of Colonel Henry Willis, of Fredericksburg. Children:

1. Willis, who went to Kentucky in 1774;
2. Hancock (3) mentioned below;
3. John;
4. Henry;
5. Richard, died unmarried;
6. Sarah Alexander who married Colonel John Gillison;
7. Mary Willis, died March 1798, who married Captain Ambrose Madison.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Edmund Jennings Lee, Lee of Virginia, p. 518, retrieved 2014-05-31, amb

• Mayflower Families Vol. 17 p. 58
• http://www.geni.com/people/Willis-Lee/6000000003465658063
• http://www.octhouse.com/Allerton.html
• http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ky/county/franklin/index/HanLee.html
• Mayflower Families Through Five Generations Descendants of the Pilgrims Who Landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in December 1620, Volume Twenty-Four, Part 3, The Descendants of Elder William Brewster Through His Children Patience, Fear, and Love, Generations 5 and 6, by Barbara Lambert Merrick, edited by John Bradley Arthaud, previewed by Peggy M. Baker, published in 2019 by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 4 Winslow Street, Plymouth, MA 02360, page 138