Stratford Hall is a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a v ...

near Lerty in

Westmoreland County, Virginia Westmoreland County is a county located in the Northern Neck of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population sits at 18,477. Its county seat is Montross. History As originally established by the Virginia colony' ...

. It was the

plantation house A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and e ...

of four generations of the

Lee family The Lee family of the United States is a historically significant Virginia and Maryland political family, whose many prominent members are known for their accomplishments in politics and the military. The family became prominent in colonial Bri ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...

(with descendants later to expand to

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

and other states). Stratford Hall is the boyhood home of two

Founding Fathers of the United States The Founding Fathers of the United States, known simply as the Founding Fathers or Founders, were a group of late-18th-century American revolutionary leaders who united the Thirteen Colonies, oversaw the war for independence from Great Britai ...

and signers of the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of ...

Richard Henry Lee Richard Henry Lee (January 20, 1732June 19, 1794) was an American statesman and Founding Father from Virginia, best known for the June 1776 Lee Resolution, the motion in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies' independence fr ...

(1732–1794), and Francis Lightfoot Lee (1734–1797). Stratford Hall is also the birthplace of Robert E. Lee (1807–1870), who served as General-in-Chief of the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

(1861–1865). The Stratford Hall estate was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1960, under the care of the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government within the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of ...

in the

U.S. Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the ma ...

History

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge ...

Thomas Lee (1690–1750) was a Virginian who served as acting Governor of the colony and was a strong advocate for westward expansion. Lee purchased the land for Stratford Hall in 1717, aware of its agricultural and commercial potential as a waterfront site. Construction of the Georgian Great House did not begin until the late 1730s. Designed by an unknown architect, the brick Great House is a two-story H-shaped structure, surrounded on four corners by attending outbuildings, all of which still stand today. Following construction of the Great House, Thomas Lee expanded the site into a bustling hive of activity, and soon the working

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...

became "a towne in itself" as one visitor to Stratford marveled. A wharf on the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia, Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Datas ...

was the destination for a large number of

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as indust ...

ships, a

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

ground wheat and corn there, and slaves and indentured servants farmed tobacco and other crops on the thousands of acres of

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...

land.

Blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

cooper Cooper, Cooper's, Coopers and similar may refer to: * Cooper (profession), a maker of wooden casks and other staved vessels Arts and entertainment * Cooper (producers), alias of Dutch producers Klubbheads * Cooper (video game character), in ' ...

s, carpenters, tailors, gardeners, and weavers plied their trades at Thomas Lee's Stratford. Stratford Hall is set in the Historic Northern Neck of Virginia, a rural peninsula where historic Christ Church is located 50 miles southeast. In the midst of this busy world, Thomas Lee and his wife

Hannah Harrison Ludwell Hannah Harrison Ludwell Lee (December 5, 1701 – January 25, 1750) was an American colonial heiress and the wife of Colonel Thomas Lee. A granddaughter of Philip Ludwell and Benjamin Harrison II, she was a prominent figure within the American ...

(1701–1749) raised eight children, six sons and two daughters. They played important roles in shaping the early history of the nation. His eldest son,

Philip Ludwell Lee Sr. Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who populariz ...

, Esquire (1727–1775) inherited Stratford Hall.

(1732–1794) and Francis Lightfoot Lee (1734–1797) were delegates from Virginia to the

Second Continental Congress The Second Continental Congress was a late-18th-century meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolutionary War. The Congress was creating a new country it first named " United Colonies" and in ...

, and signers of the

. Richard Henry was later instrumental in guiding the fledgling nation, serving as President of Congress in 1784–85.

Thomas Ludwell Lee Thomas Ludwell Lee, Sr. (December 13, 1730 – April 13, 1778) was a Virginia planter and politician who served in the House of Burgesses and later the Virginia Senate, and may be best known as one of the editors of the Virginia Declaration of R ...

, active in local politics, served as a Virginian legislator and helped compose the

Virginia Declaration of Rights The Virginia Declaration of Rights was drafted in 1776 to proclaim the inherent rights of men, including the right to reform or abolish "inadequate" government. It influenced a number of later documents, including the United States Declaratio ...

. William Lee (1739–1795) and Dr. Arthur Lee (1740–1792) were diplomats to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

during the turbulent struggle for American independence.

Hannah Lee ''Hannah Lee'' (also known as ''Outlaw Territory'' and ''Hannah Lee: An American Primitive'') is a 1953 American Western (genre), Western film directed by Lee Garmes and John Ireland (actor), John Ireland. It was originally filmed in stereosco ...

was an early proponent of women's rights, and Alice Lee married the prominent physician William Shippen Jr. (1736–1808) of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

(1727–1775), a member of the

House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been established ...

and the King's Council, continued to expand the plantation after he inherited Stratford until it eventually encompassed almost . A lover of horses and music, Philip and his wife

Elizabeth Steptoe Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...

(1743–1789) had two daughters, the oldest of them known as the "divine Matilda". Philip died in 1775, and Elizabeth remarried in 1780 to Philip Richard Fendall I (1734–1805). The new couple continued to reside at Stratford Hall with her two daughters and her son-in-law (and later a hero of the Revolutionary War, Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee (1756–1818), who had married her daughter Matilda. An arrangement was reached in 1784-1785 that the Fendalls would turn over their rights to Stratford Hall, and Henry would sell a one-half acre lot situated on Oronoco Street in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. ...

for 300 pounds. It was there that Philip R. Fendall built the Lee-Fendall House. Matilda inherited Stratford Hall in this agreement and lived there with her husband Harry and her second cousin, but the couple's time together was cut short when Matilda died after eight years of marriage. During this period, Caesar, an enslaved man, served as chef. He was noted for preparing hot chocolate for guests, as the hall had one of the first three chocolate grinding stones in Virginia. His son Caesar Jr. was the plantation's postillion. 2007Stratford 033

Several years passed before "Light Horse Harry" remarried to Ann Hill Carter (1773–1827) of

Shirley Plantation Shirley Plantation is an estate located on the north bank of the James River in Charles City County, Virginia, USA. It is located on scenic byway State Route 5, between Richmond and Williamsburg. It is the oldest active plantation in Virgini ...

. Their fourth child,

Robert Edward Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, towards the end of which he was appointed the overall commander of the Confederate States Army. He led the Army of Nort ...

(1807–1870), was born at Stratford Hall in 1807. Robert E. Lee spent only his first four years at Stratford Hall, yet remembered it fondly for the remainder of his life. In the middle of the Civil War, Lee wrote his wife that "In the absence of a home I wish I could purchase Stratford. That is the only place I could go to, now accessible to us, that would inspire me with feelings of pleasure and local love. You and the girls could remain there in quiet. It is a poor place, but we could make enough cornbread and bacon for our support and the girls could weave us clothes. I wonder if it is for sale and at how much." Light Horse Harry fell heavily into debt and eventually served a two-year term in

debtors' prison A debtors' prison is a prison for people who are unable to pay debt. Until the mid-19th century, debtors' prisons (usually similar in form to locked workhouses) were a common way to deal with unpaid debt in Western Europe Western Europe is ...

. Anne Carter Lee and the children departed from Stratford Hall during the winter of 1810–11, and moved to

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandr ...

. Stratford Hall passed into the hands of Harry and Matilda's surviving son Major Henry Lee IV "Black Horse" (1787–1837), but financial troubles and personal scandal forced him to sell the plantation several years later.

After the Lees

Stratford Hall remained in private hands for more than a century.

William C. Somerville William Clarke Somerville (March 25, 1790 – January 5, 1826) was an author, historian, diplomat, American plantation owner and militia officer in the War of 1812. Life and career William Clarke Somerville was born in St. Mary's County, Ma ...

of Maryland purchased the property from Henry Lee IV in 1822. After his death his heirs discovered that obligations incurred by Henry Lee IV continued to encumber the property. The plantation was foreclosed in 1828 and purchased by Henry D. Storke of Westmoreland County, who was married to Elizabeth "Besty" McCarty, sister of Henry Lee IV's wife, Anne Robinson McCarty.Nagel, Paul C
"The Lees of Virginia: Seven Generations of an American Family"
p 251 Besty Storke lived on the property until her death in 1879 and was buried there. In 1929, a group of women dedicated to preserving the memory of Robert E. Lee and the Lee family joined to form th
Robert E. Lee Memorial Association
and purchased Stratford Hall from the Storkes' heirs. The site is maintained by the Association and is open to the public. US postage stamp showing Lee, Jackson and Stratford Hall

US postage stamp showing Lee, Jackson and Stratford Hall

Stratford Hall was depicted on a 4¢ United States postage stamp of the 1936–1937 Army-Navy issue. The stamp shows General Robert E. Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson, with Stratford Hall in the center. StratfordHallPlantationPano

Burials at Stratford Hall

* Thomas Lee *

Hannah Harrison Ludwell Lee Hannah Harrison Ludwell Lee (December 5, 1701 – January 25, 1750) was an American colonial heiress and the wife of Colonel Thomas Lee. A granddaughter of Philip Ludwell and Benjamin Harrison II, she was a prominent figure within the American ge ...

References

External links

Official website of Stratford Hall
*
National Historic Landmark: Stratford HallThe Inn at Stratford Hall

Stratford Hall
in the Encyclopedia of Virginia {{DEFAULTSORT:Stratford Hall (plantation) Historic American Buildings Survey in Virginia Archaeological sites in Virginia Georgian architecture in Virginia Historic house museums in Virginia Lee family residences National Historic Landmarks in Virginia Museums in Westmoreland County, Virginia Plantation houses in Virginia Biographical museums in Virginia Houses in Westmoreland County, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Westmoreland County, Virginia Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Lee, Robert E Homes of United States Founding Fathers

History

After the Lees

Burials at Stratford Hall

See also

References

Further reading

External links