Henry Lee Jr. was born on September 2, 1817, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Henry and Mary Lee. His father was a prosperous merchant who owned $32,500 of real estate by 1850. He graduated from Harvard University in 1836, and he settled in Brookline, Massachusetts. He married Elizabeth Perkins Cabot on September 22, 1845, and they had at least eight children: Elizabeth, born around 1847; Henry, born around 1849; Clara, born around 1851; Eliot, borna round 1854; George, born around 1856; Margaret, born around 1859; Joseph, born around 1862; and Susan, born around 1864.
During the Civil War, he served as an aide-de-camp on Governor John A. Andrew’s staff. By 1870, he was working as a banker, and he owned $100,000 of real estate and $100,000 of personal property. He employed at least three domestic servants, a coachman, and a seamstress. He served in the Massachusetts state legislature in 1876 and 1877. He died of pneumonia in Brookline on November 24, 1898.
Image: Henry Lee Jr. (courtesy Wikicommons)