Diplomatist; born in
Stratford, Va., in 1737: brother of
Richard Henry and
Arthur; was agent for
Virginia in
London, and became a merchant there.
The city of
London being overwhelmingly Whig in politics,
William Lee was elected sheriff of that city and
Middlesex county in 1773.
In 1775 he was chosen alderman, but on the breaking out of the war in
America retired to
France.
Congress appointed him commercial agent at
Nantes at the beginning of 1777, and he was afterwards American minister at
The Hague.
Mr. Lee was also agent in
Berlin and
Vienna, but was recalled in 1779.
In 1778
Jan de Neufville, an Amsterdam merchant, procured a loan to the
Americans from
Holland, through his house, and, to negotiate for it, gained permission of the burgomasters of
Amsterdam to meet
Lee at Aix-la-Chapelle.
There they arranged terms for a commercial convention proper to be entered into between the two republics.
When
Lee communicated this project to the
American commissioners at
Paris, they (having been much annoyed by the intermeddling of his brother Arthur) reminded him that the authority for treating with the States-General belonged exclusively to them.
Congress took no notice of his negotiations with
De Neufville, and soon afterwards dismissed him from their service.
Lee died in
Green Spring, Va., June 27, 1795.
