Michigan historical collections. [Vol. 17]

REPORT OF THE MEMORIAL COMMITTEE.

87

which has been extensively circulated throughout the State, we learn
that deceased was of pure English descent. His grandfather Lee was
an Englishman and came to Boston about 1748 or 1750. He married
Deborah Bundy. The union was blessed with two sons, Samuel and
Moses; Samuel, the eldest, was the father of the subject of this sketch,
and was born in 1754. Consequently he was twenty-one years of age
at the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, and entering the patriot
army served his country until after the independence of the Colonies
was acknowledged.
Dr. Lee's mother's maiden name was Williams. Her father was an
Englishman and came to America as a soldier under General Braddock
and was in the disastrous battle of Braddock's defeat. When discharged from the army he settled at Woodbury, Connecticut. Here he
married Miss Thankful Spencer, of Puritan stock. Their daughter
Hannah was Dr. Lee's mother. Grandfather Williams dying when he
was young, she was brought up in the the family of Rev. Dr. Belamy
the great New England divine of that day.
When Dr. Lee's father was discharged from the army at the close of
the Revolution he found his way to Woodbury and married Miss
Hannah Williams, who was still living in the family of Dr. Belamy.
Seven sons and two daughters were the result of their union, all of
whom lived to be men and women. The youngest died at the age of
fifty about thirty-five years ago, and the oldest of the family died about
fifteen years ago at the advanced age of ninety-two. Dr. Lee was the
last of the family.
Dr. Lee was born in Schoharie, N. Y., November 30, 1800, but his
parents moved into Delaware county at the dawn of his recollection,
settling in the township of Courtwright. This was the neighborhood
of the distinguished Bangs family. John Bangs held meetings at Dr.
Lee's father's house when the subject of this sketch was seven or eight
years of age, and Dr. Lee remembers he was affected "by his very loud
and earnest exhortation."
At the age of nine years Dr. Lee removed with his parents into
Ulster county, where his mother died four years later. The family was
broken up, and the young boy left with strangers. Descending to. Middietown, Delaware county, he hired himself out for the summer, and the
same fall went to live with a man named Smith. He remained with
this man for four years, having principal charge of a grist mill of
which Smith was the owner. In the fall of 1817 the young man went
to live with Daniel H. Burr, about four miles distant, agreeing to
remain there until he had reached his majority. Mr. Burr was a