Photograph of a portrait published in “Our Circuit Judges,” Fairmount Times, (Fairmount, West Virginia), July 17, 1996
Clipping courtesy West Virginia State Archives, Division of Culture and History
Born in 1807 in Winchester, Virginia
Died November 20, 1873 in Clarksburg, West Virginia
Elected by popular vote on May 27, 1852 under the Constitution of 1851 and began his service on July 1, 1852. Lee did not sit on the court after April 1861 because his home was in present-day West Virginia, which reorganized as an independent state in June 1861.
Education:
Attended University of Virginia, 1827-1829
Studied law with Henry St. George Tucker, Winchester Law School
Other judicial service:
Judge, Circuit Superior Court of Law and Chancery, Monroe County, 1850-1852
Professional career:
Private practice of law in Clarksburg, Weston, and Parkersburg, 1830-1846, circa; 1861-1873
Counsel, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Virginia state delegate, 1839-1841
Commonwealth’s attorney, Harrison County, circa 1842-1846
U.S. attorney, Western District of Virginia, 1846-1848
Source:
Elected by popular vote, 50 Va., iii; sat until April 1861, 57 Va., iii; birth, career, and death, Death of Judge Lee, Spirit of Jefferson (Charles Town, Va. [W.Va.]), December 2, 1873, col. 2, retrieved on February 5, 2014; attended the University of Virginia, 1827-1829, and identified as part of the Class of 1828, University of Virginia Catalogue, 1827-1828 and 1828-1829, University of Virginia Law Library, Special Collections; served on the circuit court in Monroe County from 1850-1852, and portrait, Frank C. Haymond, “Our Circuit Judges: Fry and Lee were First Circuit Judges,” Fairmont Times (Fairmont, West Virginia), July 17, 1966, 1; U.S. district attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, Bicentennial Celebration of the US Attorneys, 1789-1989, retrieved on February 5, 2014.