Plate XXV.—Porch, Lee Mansion.
This gray wooden building, with its two wide-girthed chimneys pushing up from the red roof, has the same appearance as in the days when the first housewarming took place, in 1768. The handsome porch and the gray cupola are distinguishing features, and from the former in the olden days the colonel swept the seas with his spy-glass to watch for incoming ships just as sea captains do to-day.
In the early part of the eighteenth century Jeremiah Lee came to this country and settled at Manchester-by-the-Sea. The little that can be learned of him shows him to have been a keen trader, who took care to make his savings increase his income. In 1760 we find him living in Marblehead, prominent in town affairs and serving on important committees, being one of the Board of Fire-wards in the first fire department of the town. He was also one of the building committee that had charge of the construction of the powder house erected about that time.
Originally Lee was a Loyalist, but he later became a patriot and was foremost in all the movements that kindled the spirit of independence in the colonists. Before the struggle had fairly commenced, his career was cut short by an early death; otherwise he would have been as well known to posterity as was his intimate friend and fellow-townsman, Elbridge Gerry. As a member of the Province Committee of Safety and Supplies, which held a meeting on April 18, 1775, at Weatherby's Black Horse Tavern, situated on the highway between Concord and Lexington, he was among the number who decided to spend the night at the tavern rather than to go on to Lexington. The advance guard of the British troops was sighted in the early morning, and the colonel and his friends hastily dressed and escaped by a rear door, the colonel thereby contracting a cold from which he died.
During Lee's life in Marblehead he entertained royally in this mansion, which was erected at a cost of ten thousand pounds. Within a few steps of this mansion there was also a cooking-house, the same building being used to shelter the carriages of the family. Originally the large brick building now used for the store was made his slaves' quarters. Not long ago was found inside the house a small brass button, bearing the coat of arms of the Lee family, which was doubtless once worn on the livery of one of his slaves.
In the flagging that leads to the side door has lately been uncovered a central stone bearing the date of the erection of the house.
