The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
Author: Kenneth R. Alexander
The following biography of Captain Thomas Lee is an edited version of the account provided by Harvey Lee Ross in his book "The Early Pioneers and Pioneer Events of the State of Illinois Including Personal Recollections of the Writer; of Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, and Peter Cartwright, Together with a Brief Autobiography of the Writer" (Chicago: Eastman Brothers, 1899).
”Thomas Lee … was born in Fishkill, New York, November 15th, 1739, and died at Penn Yan, New York, January 22nd, 1814. His wife, Mattie Sherman, was born in 1743, and died October 14th, 1833. Thomas Lee and Mattie Sherman were married in 1760, and had ten children.
Thomas Lee's ancestors came from England to America about the middle of the seventeenth century. There were two branches of the Lee family, one of which branches settled in the state of New York and the other in the state of Virginia. Both branches came from the same original stock. Their ancestors had held positions of honor and trust in the old country, and some of those who settled in New York and Virginia occupied prominent places in the colonial history of America, in the state legislatures, and in the councils of the nation. Joshua Lee, brother of Thomas Lee, was for many years a member of the New York State Senate. One of the Virginia branch, Richard Henry Lee, drew up and submitted to Congress the resolution of June 7th, 1776, declaring that the United Colonies of America are and ought to be free and independent states; that they absolved themselves from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and Great Britain is and ought to be totally absolved, which resolution was adopted by the Continental Congress. Both Richard Henry Lee and his brother, Francis Lightfoot Lee, were members of the Continental Congress and signers of the Declaration of Independence.
The services of Thomas Lee in assisting in the establishment of American independence during the war of the Revolution were as follows: he was second lieutenant of Captain Jack Rosekrance's company, Col. Jack Holmes, fourth regiment. New York Continental line, 28th of June, 1775; promoted first lieutenant, August 3rd, 1775. He was captain of the eighth company, fifth regiment, New York Continental line, commanded by Col. Louis Du Bois, November 21st, 1776; resigned May 19th, 1778. He was also captain in Col. Zepharriah Platt's regiment of New York Associated Exempts, October 19th, 1779. He was also captain in Col. Louis Du Bois' regiment of New York militia, July 1st, 1780.
(References, pages 140, 231, 257, 285 and 529 of Vol. 1, "New York in the Revolution," or Vol. 15 of the published "Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York," published by Reed, Parsons & Co., Albany, New York, 1887. Also page 261 of "Heitman's Register of Officers of the Continental Army," published by H. B. Heitman, at Washington, D. C.)"
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