William Lee

William Lee 1739-95, American Revolutionary diplomat, b. Westmoreland co., Va.; brother of Arthur Lee, Francis L. Lee, and Richard H. Lee. He opened a business house in London in 1768 and later was a political supporter of John Wilkes and became (1775) an alderman of London. He accepted appointment by the Continental Congress as an agent for the newly created United States, and later attempted unsuccessfully to obtain recognition from both Austria and Prussia. He and a Dutch merchant made a draft of a possible U.S.-Dutch commercial treaty. The draft, which had no official sanction at all, Lee sent back to America. A copy of it, seized by the British when they captured Henry Laurens , was used as a cause for warfare between Great Britain and the Netherlands.

Bibliography: See his Letters 1766-83, ed. by W. C. Ford (3 vol., 1891; repr. 1971); B. J. Hendrick, The Lees of Virginia (1935).

Davidson, William Lee (c. 1746–81) Revolutionary army officer born in Pennsylvania but reared in North Carolina. Davidson led militiamen in defending Charlotte against Charles Cornwallis.

Davidson County and Davidson College, both in North Carolina, as well as Davidson County in Tennessee, were named in his honor.