Editing Charles Lee (general) (section)

==Early and personal life==
[[File:Coat of Arms of Charles Lee.svg|175px|thumb|left|Coat of Arms of Charles Lee]]
Lee was born on {{OldStyleDateDY|6 February|1732|26 January 1731}}<ref name="anb">{{Cite ANB|title=Lee, Charles|author=Paul David Nelson|url=http://www.anb.org/articles/01/01-00506.html}}</ref><ref name="marchant105">Karels, p. 105</ref> in [[Darnhall]], [[Cheshire]], England, [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]], the son of [[Major General]] John Lee{{efn|John Lee began as captain of dragoons and served in [[Grenadier Guards|1st Foot Guards]] and [[King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster)|4th Foot]]  He was Colonel of [[54th (West Norfolk) Regiment of Foot|54th Foot]] and later [[44th (East Essex) Regiment of Foot|44th Foot]].}}<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB|author=Henry Manners Chichester|wstitle=Lee, Charles|volume=32|pages=344–7}}</ref> and his wife Isabella Bunbury (daughter of [[Sir Henry Bunbury, 3rd Baronet]]).<ref name="anb"/><ref name="DNB"/><ref name="appleton">{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Lee, Charles|year=1892|author=John Fiske|author-link=John Fiske (philosopher)}}
</ref><ref name="DVB">{{cite encyclopedia |author=[[Lyon Gardiner Tyler]] |title=Lee, Charles |dictionary=Dictionary of Virginia Biography |year=1915|volume=2|pages=167–170}}</ref> His mother's family were landed gentry with national stature—his maternal grandfather had been an MP for Cheshire, and a cousin, Sir Thomas Charles Bunbury, was an MP for Suffolk. Five of Lee's six older siblings had died – only his sister Sidney Lee, four years older, survived to adulthood. Sidney never married.<ref name=Papas2014>{{cite book |last=Papas |first=Phillip |title=Renegade Revolutionary: The Life of General Charles Lee |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bx7qAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA17 |year=2014 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-1-4798-5121-8 |pages=17–20, 288–290}}</ref>

Like his mother, with whom he did not get along well, Lee would have a temperamental personality and poor physical health (suffering rheumatism and chronic attacks of gout), which caused him to travel often to medicinal spas.<ref>Papas, [{{GBurl|bx7qAgAAQBAJ|p=18}} pp. 18–19].</ref> He received a private education from tutors, then was sent to a grammar school near Chester and a private academy in [[Switzerland]] before being sent to [[King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon|King Edward VI School]], [[Bury St Edmunds]], a free [[grammar school]] near the home of his uncle, Rev. William Bunbury.<ref>Papas, [{{GBurl|bx7qAgAAQBAJ|p=21}} p. 21].</ref> Lee became proficient in several languages, including [[Latin]], [[Ancient Greek|Greek]], and [[French language|French]].<ref name="anb"/><ref name="marchant105"/><ref name="DNB"/><ref name="appleton"/> His father was colonel of the [[44th (East Essex) Regiment of Foot|55th Foot]] (later renumbered the 44th) when he [[Sale of commissions|purchased a commission]] on 9 April 1747, for Charles as an [[Ensign (rank)|ensign]] in the same regiment.<ref name="anb"/><ref name="DNB"/>

Despite inheriting money upon his mother's death, Lee became known for a peripatetic and extravagant lifestyle, which led to financial difficulties several times in his life, including after liquidating land grants in [[East Florida]] and [[Prince Edward Island]] in the late 1760s (which he received because of his service in the French and Indian War).<ref>Papas, [{{GBurl|bx7qAgAAQBAJ|p=77}} pp. 77-78].</ref> By 1770, Lee had acquired the services of Giuseppe Minghini, who would remain his servant until the end of his life and received a bequest.<ref>Papas, pp. [{{GBurl|bx7qAgAAQBAJ|p=89}} 89], [{{GBurl|bx7qAgAAQBAJ|p=287}} 287–288].</ref> Lee owned at least six slaves shortly before his death,<ref>Augusta Bridgland Fothergill and John Mark Naugle, Virginia Tax Payers 1782-1787 other than those published by the United States Census Bureau (1940) p. 75</ref> and his will divided ownership of all his slaves (three mentioned by name) between Minghini and Elizabeth Dunne, Lee's housekeeper.<ref>Papas, [{{GBurl|bx7qAgAAQBAJ|p=288}} p. 288].</ref> After paying his debts and a number of specific bequests, some involving horses and others money (usually to purchase mourning rings), Lee directed his executors (future congressman [[Alexander White (Virginia politician)|Alexander White]] and former Rev. Charles Mynn Thurston),  to pay the remainder of his estate (worth about $700 according to the filed inventory) to his sister Sidney.<ref>Papas, [{{GBurl|bx7qAgAAQBAJ|p=287}} p. 287].</ref><ref>Charles Lee will available on Family Search.</ref>