Lee, Francis Lightfoot (1734-1797), was a Virginia signer of the Declaration of Independence. As a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1758 to 1776, he helped lead the protest against the Stamp Act and other British measures that were unpopular with the American Colonies. He helped form the Virginia Committee of Correspondence in 1773 (see Committees of correspondence ). In 1775, Lee was elected as a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he ably served the colonial cause. He resigned in 1779 to return to his plantation.
Lee was a brother of the revolutionary leader Richard Henry Lee and an ancestor of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. He was born on Oct. 14, 1734, in Westmoreland County, Virginia. He died on Jan. 17, 1797.
