Charles Lee (Attorney General)

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Charles Lee (1758 – June 24, 1815) was an American lawyer from Virginia. He served as United States Attorney General from 1795 until 1801.

Charles was born to Henry (1729-1787) and Lucy (Grymes) Lee on his father's plantation of Leesylvania in Westmoreland County, Virginia. He was the third of eleven children and the elder brother of General Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee. Another brother was Congressman Richard Bland Lee. A third cousin was Zachary Taylor. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) in 1775, and the read law with Jared Ingersoll in Philadelphia before returning to Virginia.

Charles married Anne Lee, a cousin and the daughter of Richard Henry Lee (his first cousin once removed) in 1789. Before her death in 1804 the couple had four children that survived infancy. He married a second time in 1809, to Margaret Scott, and had three more children in this union.

President Washington appointed Lee the Attorney General after William Bradford died in office. After Senate approval he took office on December 10, 1795 and served through the rest of the administration. He was continued in office by John Adams and served through the entire Adams administration until February 19, 1801.

During his term in office Lee lived in Alexandria, which was then part of the capital district. He was an early advocate for the return of the southern part of the District of Columbia to Virginia which finally happened in 1847. After his time as Attorney General, he became the port officer for the District of the Potomac. He declined Thomas Jefferson's offer to appoint him a justice of the Supreme Court.

Lee died in 1815 in Fauquier County, Virginia, aged 56 or 57, and is buried in the Warrenton Cemetery in Warrenton.

[edit] External links

• Charles Lee (Attorney General) at Find A Grave

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v • d • e Cabinet of President George Washington (1789-1797) Vice President John Adams (1789-1797) Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson (1789-1793) • Edmund Randolph (1794-1795) • Timothy Pickering (1795-1797) Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (1789-1795) • Oliver Wolcott, Jr. (1795-1797) Secretary of War Henry Knox (1789-1794) • Timothy Pickering (1795-1795) • James McHenry (1796-1797) Attorney General Edmund Randolph (1789-1794) • William Bradford (1794-1795) • Charles Lee (1795-1797)

v • d • e Cabinet of President John Adams (1797-1801) Vice President Thomas Jefferson (1797-1801) Secretary of State Timothy Pickering (1797-1800) • John Marshall (1800-1801) Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott, Jr. (1797-1801) • Samuel Dexter (1801) Secretary of War James McHenry (1796-1800) • Samuel Dexter (1800-1801) Attorney General Charles Lee (1797-1801) Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert (1798-1801)