THOMAS LEE, JR.

Thomas Lee, Jr. (b. New Hartford, Conn., 1757; d. there 12 May 1822), a composer, music engraver, and merchant, also served in the Revolutionary War. Lee was a captain in the militia, a prominent Freemason, and he represented New Hartford in the Connecticut Association in 1813 and 1816. Shipton & Mooney attribute Lee & Willard's Sacred Harmony to Thomas Lee, Jr. (b. near Farmington, Conn., 17 Dec. 1717; d. there 11 Jan. 1806), a shoemaker and singing master, but his advanced age at the time the work appeared (he was more than seventy) makes him an unlikely candidate. The younger Thomas Lee was the son of Joseph Lee, brother of the elder and hence the elder's nephew. In eighteenth-century practice 'Jr.' was not reserved for sons bearing their fathers' names, but was also used if a younger man had the same name as an older citizen of the town or a revered family member.

          Bio-bib. Also Lee 1897, p. 213-14; 222-23.

          See No. 446.

ASMI p. 436.