Lucy (Grymes) Lee (1734 - 1792)

Born 26 Apr 1734 in Brandon, Middlesex County, Virginia Colony

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 1792 at about age 57 in Westmorland County, Virginia, United States

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Biography

Lucy Grymes (1734–1792)^[1] was the daughter of Hon. Charles Grymes (1693–1743) "(twice related to President George Washington) and Frances (Corbin) Jennings (1671-1713) (great-aunt of Edmund Jennings Randolph (1753-1812)."^[2]

Lucy, nicknamed "The Lowland Beauty," married Henry Lee. Lucy was very fair. Her eyes were blue and her hair exceptionally blonde, soft and light as a baby's. According to local tradition, she was one of the Virginia beauties adored by Gen. George Washington (1732-1799) in his early youth. To her legend also ascribes his schoolboy verses, and many have surmised that when in after years Washington so favored her son "Harry", it was because of his tender memories of the boy's mother.

Acquaintance with George Washington

Washington Irving described George Washington's early romance, possibly referring to Lucy: "There are evidences in his own handwriting, that, before he was fifteen years of age, he had conceived a passion for some unknown beauty, so serious as to disturb his otherwise well-regulated mind, and to make him really unhappy. Why this juvenile attachment was a source of unhappiness we have no positive means of ascertaining. Perhaps the object of it may have considered him a mere school-boy, and treated him as such; or his own shyness may have been in his way, and his 'rules for behavior and conversation' may as yet have sat awkwardly on him and rendered him formal and ungainly when he most sought to please. Even in later years he was apt to be silent and embarrassed in female society. 'He was a very bashful young man,' said an old lady, whom he used to visit when they were both in their nonage. 'I used often to wish that he would talk more.'

"Whatever may have been the reason, this early attachment seems to have been a source of poignant discomfort to him. It clung to him after he took a final leave of school in the autumn of 1747, and went to reside with his brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon. Here he continued his mathematical studies and his practice in surveying, disturbed at times by recurrences of his unlucky passion. Though by no means of a poetical temperament, the waste pages of his journal betray several attempts to pour forth his amorous sorrows in verse. They are mere common-place rhymes, such as lovers at his age are apt to write, in which he bewails his 'poor restless heart, wounded by Cupid's dart,' and 'bleeding for one who remains pitiless of his griefs and woes.'

"The tenor of some of his verses induce us to believe that he never told his love; but, as we have already surmised, was prevented by his bashfulness..

'Ah, woe is me, that I should love and conceal; Long have I wished and never dare reveal.

"It is difficult to reconcile one's self to the idea of the cool and sedate Washington, the great champion of American liberty, a woe-worn lover in his youthful days, 'sighing like furnace,' and inditing plaintive verses about the groves of Mount Vernon. We are glad of an opportunity, however, of penetrating to his native feelings, and finding that under his studied decorum and reserve he had a heart of flesh throbbing with the warm impulses of human nature."^[3]

Additional passages describe Washington's experience: "The merits of Washington were known and appreciated by the Fairfax family. Though not quite sixteen years of age, he no longer seemed a boy, nor was he treated as such. Tall, athletic, and manly for his years, his early self-training, and the code of conduct he had devised, gave a gravity and decision to his conduct; his frankness and modesty inspired cordial regard, and the melancholy, of which he speaks, may have produced a softness in his manner calculated to win favor in ladies' eyes. According to his own account, the female society by which he was surrounded had a soothing effect on that melancholy. The charms of Miss Carey, the sister of the bride, seem even to have caused a slight fluttering in his bosom; which, however, was constantly rebuked by the remembrance of his former passion--so at least we judge from letters to his youthful confidants, rough drafts of which are still to be seen in his tell-tale journal.

"To one whom he addresses as his dear friend Robin, he writes: 'My residence is at present at his lordship's, where I might, was my heart disengaged, pass my time very pleasantly, as there's a very agreeable young lady lives in the same house (Col. George Fairfax's wife's sister); but as that's only adding fuel to fire, it makes me the more uneasy, for by often and unavoidably being in company with her, revives my former passion for your Lowland Beauty; whereas was I to live more retired from young women, I might in some measure alleviate my sorrows, by burying that chaste and troublesome passion in the grave of oblivion,' &c..

"Similar avowals he makes to another of his young correspondents, whom he styles, 'Dear friend John;' as also to a female confidant, styled 'Dear Sally,' to whom he acknowledges that the company of the 'very agreeable young lady, sister-in-law of Col. George Fairfax,' in a great measure cheers his sorrow and dejectedness.

"The object of this early passion is not positively known. Tradition states that the 'lowland beauty' was a Miss Grimes, of Westmoreland, afterwards Mrs. Lee, and mother of General Henry Lee, who figured in revolutionary history as Light Horse Harry, and was always a favorite with Washington, probably from the recollections of his early tenderness for the mother.

"Whatever may have been the soothing effect of the female society by which he was surrounded at Belvoir, the youth found a more effectual remedy for his love melancholy in the company of Lord Fairfax. His lordship was a staunch fox-hunter, and kept horses and hounds in the English style."^[4]

Leesylvania

Henry and Lucy lived at "Leesylvania," a plantation between Neabsco Creek and Powell Creek in Prince William County, Virginia. The site of the home is now part of Leesylvania State Park. The plantation home burned about 1790. The estate was sold to Henry Fairfax in 1825, whose family lived there in a home which may have pre-dated the Lee residence. The Fairfax home burned in 1910 and the ruins of the walls and a chimney are all that remain.^[5][1]

Slaves

When Lucy's husband Henry Lee died in 1787, a number of enslaved persons were named in his will,^[6] as well as in his probate inventory of 19 Dec 1787.^[7]

Eleven named slaves were bequeathed to Lucy. For more information please see the Slaves of Henry Lee 1787 page.

Burial

Henry and Lucy were buried at the Leesylvania.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21894049/lucy-lee: accessed 21 July 2023), memorial page for Lucy Grymes Lee (1734–1792), Find A Grave: Memorial #21894049, citing Leesylvania Plantation Graveyard, Woodbridge, Prince William County, Virginia, USA; Maintained by James Bianco (contributor 47745493).
2. ↑ Wikipedia, "Henry Lee II," (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lee_II#Family_and_marriage : accessed 10 July 2023).
3. ↑ Washington Irving, "The Life of George Washington, Volume 1, New York: Putnam, 1876, pages 14-15; digital images, GoogleBooks (Book Link : accessed 20 July 2023).
4. ↑ Washington Irving, "The Life of George Washington, Volume 1, New York: Putnam, 1876, pages 15-16; digital images, GoogleBooks (Book Link : accessed 10 July 2023).
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Wikipedia, "Leesylvania," (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leesylvania_(plantation) : accessed 10 July 2023).
6. ↑ General index to wills, 1734-1951; wills, inventories & accounts, 1734- 1872: "General index to wills, 1734-1951; wills, inventories & accounts, 1734- 1872"
   Catalog: General index to wills, 1734-1951; wills, inventories & accounts, 1734- 1872 Wills, inventories & accounts, Vol. C 1734-1744 Wills, inventories & accounts, Vol. G 1778- 1791
   Film number: 007645737 > image 499 of 584
   FamilySearch Image: 3QS7-L9PX-FQ84 (accessed 13 June 2023)
   • Will Bk Vol G p.373
7. ↑ General index to wills, 1734-1951; wills, inventories & accounts, 1734- 1872: "General index to wills, 1734-1951; wills, inventories & accounts, 1734- 1872"
   Catalog: General index to wills, 1734-1951; wills, inventories & accounts, 1734- 1872 Wills, inventories & accounts, Vol. C 1734-1744 Wills, inventories & accounts, Vol. G 1778- 1791
   Film number: 007645737 > image 508 of 584
   FamilySearch Image: 3QS7-L9PX-FQZ9 (accessed 13 June 2023)
   • Will Bk G p. 391

Additional sources

• Lineage Book of the Charter Members of the DAR Vol 068

• U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 Yates Publishing Publication: Ancestry.com Operations Inc

• Millennium File Heritage Consulting Publication: Ancestry.com Operations Inc

• U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970 Ancestry.com Publication: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.

Acknowledgments

• Contributions by Lynda, Jeff Kenner, Janice Hardin, Lindsay Coleman, Bruce Porter, and others.
• This profile was created through the import of Tribal Pages 0004.ged on 25 March 2011.
• This person was created on 18 March 2011 through the import of knox17032011.ged.
• Thank you to Lynda Hull for creating Grimes-975 on 7 Nov 13.