Stratford Hall is a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that is preserved as 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 variety of ...

Westmoreland County, Virginia Westmoreland County is a County (United States), county located in the Northern Neck of the Virginia, Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, the population sits at 18,477. Its county seat is Montross, Virginia, Montross ...

. 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 ...

of four generations of the Lee family of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

(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 borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

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

Founding Fathers of the United States The Founding Fathers of the United States, often simply referred to as the Founding Fathers or the Founders, were a group of late-18th-century American Revolution, American revolutionary leaders who United Colonies, united the Thirteen Colon ...

and signers of the

United States Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America in the original printing, is the founding document of the United States. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the Second Continen ...

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 Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a general officers in the Confederate States Army, Confederate general during the American Civil War, who was appointed the General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate ...

(1807–1870), who was

General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States The general in chief of the Armies of the Confederate States, or simply general in chief, was the military commander of the Confederate States Army (CSA) from January until April 1865. The office was effectively abolished on April 9, 1865, when ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

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

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

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 US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

in the U.S. Department of the Interior.

History

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 the construction of the

Great House A great house is a large house or mansion with luxurious appointments and great retinues of indoor and outdoor staff. The term is used mainly historically, especially of properties at the turn of the 20th century, i.e., the late Victorian or ...

, Thomas Lee expanded the site into a bustling hive of activity, and soon the working

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

became "a towne in itself" as one visitor to Stratford marveled. By the time Stratford was completed around 1742, an estimated 200 enslaved Africans and African Americans were living at Stratford and other properties owned by Thomas Lee. A wharf on the

Potomac River The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography D ...

was the destination for a large number of

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in goods produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Merchants have been known for as long as humans have engaged in trade and commerce. Merchants and merchant networks operated i ...

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 grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

ground wheat and corn there, and enslaved 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 fo ...

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 ...

s, coopers, 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. Amid this busy world, Thomas Lee and his wife Hannah Harrison Ludwell (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., 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 (1775–1781) was the meetings of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolution and American Revolutionary War, Revolutionary War, which established American independence ...

and signers of the

. Richard Henry was later instrumental in guiding the fledgling nation, serving as

President of the Continental Congress The president of the United States in Congress Assembled, known unofficially as the president of the Continental Congress and later as president of the Congress of the Confederation, was the presiding officer of the Continental Congress, the con ...

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 ...

, 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

Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain, also known as the Kingdom of Great Britain, was a sovereign state in Western Europe from 1707 to the end of 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of Union 1707, which united the Kingd ...

during the turbulent struggle for American independence. Hannah Lee was an early proponent of women's rights, and Alice Lee married the prominent physician William Shippen Jr. (1736–1808) of

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. Philip Ludwell Lee Sr. (1727–1775), a member of the

House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses () was the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly from 1619 to 1776. It existed during the colonial history of the United States in the Colony of Virginia in what was then British America. From 1642 to 1776, the Hou ...

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 (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 on Oronoco Street in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in Northern Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Washington, D.C., D.C. The city's population of 159,467 at the 2020 ...

for 300 pounds. There, 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, was a chef. He was noted for preparing hot chocolate for guests, as the hall had one of Virginia's first three chocolate grinding stones. 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 (house), estate on the north bank of the James River in Charles City County, Virginia. It is located on scenic byway State Route 5 (Virginia), State Route 5, between Richmond, Virginia, Richmond and Williamsburg, ...

. Their fourth child, Robert Edward Lee (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

, Lee wrote his wife, "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.Cory, Lucinda"A Histor ...

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

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

. Stratford Hall passed into the hands of Harry and Matilda's surviving son, Major Henry Lee IV "Black Horse" (1787–1837). Still, financial troubles and personal scandals 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 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 she died 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 Association maintains the site, which is open to the public. Lee Jackson Stratford Hall stamp

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 Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (January 21, 1824 – May 10, 1863) was a Confederate general and military officer who served during the American Civil War. He played a prominent role in nearly all military engagements in the eastern the ...

, with Stratford Hall in the center. StratfordHallPlantationPano

Burials at Stratford Hall

* Thomas Lee * Hannah Harrison Ludwell

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 Richard Henry Lee

History

After the Lees

Burials at Stratford Hall

See also

References

Further reading

External links