Geography of Man in Relation to Eugenics 303 



The first families of Virginia. — This remarkable galaxy 

 arose by the intermarriage of representatives of various 

 English aristocratic families. The story of these early 

 matings is briefly as follows: Richard Lee, of a Shropshire 

 family that held much land, and many of whose members 

 had been knighted, went, during the reign of Charles I, to 

 the colony of Virginia as secretary and one of the king's 

 Privy Council. "He was a man of good stature, comely 

 visage, enterprising genius, sound head, vigorous spirit, 

 and generous nature." He gained large grants of land 

 in Virginia. His son, Richard, married in 1674, Laetitia, 

 daughter of Henry Corbin and Alice Eltonhead. The 

 Corbins were wealthy and extensive landowners in England 

 for fourteen generations, and the Eltonheads were also an 

 aristocratic family and extensive landowners of Virginia, 

 holding high offices in the colony. 



Richard and Laetitia Lee had six sons and one daughter, 

 Ann. Ann married Col. William Fitzhugh, a descendant 

 of the -English barons, military men, and parliamentarians 

 of that name. Their eldest son married a Carter, and one 

 of their granddaughters and one of their sons married a 

 Randolph ; their daughter Mary, married George Washing- 

 ton Parke Custis, and became the grandmother of Robert 

 E. Lee. Richard Lee, Jr., had children who married into the 

 families of Fairfax and Turberville. A brother of Richard, 

 Thomas, was president of the council and at one time acting 

 governor of the colony. He married Hannah Ludwell, 

 descendant of a brother of the statesman, Lord Cottington; 

 one of their sons, Richard Henry Lee, prepared at the 

 Continental Congress the resolutions for independence; 

 another, Francis Lightfoot Lee, was a member of Congress 

 and still another, Thomas, a judge of the General Court. 



