The Lees of Quethiock Cornwall Their Family History from Ancient Times
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THE LEES OF QUETHIOCK CORNWALL THEIR FAMILY HISTORY FROM ANCIENT TIMES "Brave men have lived before Agamemnon, lots of them. But on all of them - eternal night lies heavy, for they left no records behind. (`ODES` Horace 65-8BC) This is the story of those who did This is the story of my ancestors, the Lee family, who have left records behind and from which the line can be traced from Alexander and Thomas born 1994 and 1990 respectively, back to John of Legh, alive in 1433, and Richard de Leye, alive in 1327. John and Richard lived at, and took their surname from Legh, a pre-Norman settlement in Cornwall recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. Legh is situated in the present parish of Quethiock, some 5 miles west of the River Tamar and 5 miles east of Liskeard, just in the southeast corner of Cornwall. To uncover the history took ten and more years of research. So what stimulated me to commence? In 1986 I watched a television programme on early portraiture. It was explained that during the time of the Roman Empire (146BC-410AD) it was fashionable to have a statue carved of oneself together with ones father and grandfather. To illustrate this a statue from the 1st century AD was shown; I was astounded to note that it bore a likeness to my family and in particular to my brother, David Henry Lee. I immediately commented on this to my wife, Brenda, who replied `No, it is more like you`. From that moment the question lay in my mind `I look like a Roman from 2000 years ago; I have the surname of Lee which is derived from a Saxon-German word meaning pasture; my father`s family were known to have come from Cornwall and so presumably I have West Welsh Celtic blood; my mother claimed her family came from Devon and I was born in Devonport on the borders of Devon and Cornwall; so who am I? Cornwall over the millenniums had been invaded by 6 or so groups of different people; Ancient British (7000BC), Celts (700BC-63AD), Danes (800AD), Romans (63-401AD), Saxons (447-1066AD), Normans (1066). Each will have left descendants in Cornwall of whom some are my ancestors; but which ones? To answer that question I embarked on a search that traced ancestral roots to all six. The English are oft described as not being a true pure race, I am a typical Englishman, a typical Cornishman who illustrates this statement fully. I found that I am a genetic mixture of those many early European races who successively invaded the southern parts of Britain. I will trace the history of the family from ancient times, which has left no direct records of the family and the history has to be inferred from genetic indications, then through the medieval period of 500-1500AD during which records were starting to be kept and fortunately some of these exist still and do contain references to the Lees, finally through the period from 1500AD until the present in which ample records have been kept and those from Cornwall show a continuous record of the family`s births, marriages and deaths. EARLIEST ROOTS We are physically and mentally what our genes make us, we can be no other. These genes we inherit from our ancestors, so by looking at ourselves and the collective pool of genes in the area from which we come, we can get some inkling as to the nature and appearance of our forefathers. Roman Ancestor I spent my whole working career engaged in exploring for oil and in the course of that I visited more than 70 countries in 6 of the 7 continents. Thus I was able to enjoy the companionship of many different races and nationalities and to observe their differences. My companions were all principally of the same social stratum of highly intelligent, well educated professionals; our differences in character were small and overall we were more alike than different. Yet one could not conceal that there were obvious visible physical differences in appearance between the races, conversely though, within each national group there was a predominance of similar facial and body features; most Germans looked like Germans, most Irish looked like Irish. I use to amuse myself on long flights watching the other passengers and guessing their origins, particularly those from the USA since they all had the same cultural trappings but yet their faces, hair colouring and body build still told their ancestral roots. Others applying this same observation to myself placed me as a Roman. I explained to an Italian colleague who lived in Rome that I felt at ease walking down the Via Veneto in Rome, to which he responded, `I am not surprised. You look like everybody else there`. Additionally I found that the only gentlemans ready-to-wear suits that fit without any alterations were those tailored in Italy; my body build is a standard Italian pattern. The statue* from 1st century Rome shown on television and which looked like me was a confirmation of the observation. Shortly afterwards my brother, Godfrey Lee, who knew nothing about the above told me that when he and his wife were visiting the Doge`s Palace in Venice they became separated and he found her looking up at a statue of the Roman Empire period and on asking what she was doing she replied `Looking at Maurice`. It may at first seem unlikely that Roman features could be passed down through 40 to 50 generations and still be readily discernible but a similar occurrence has been well documented in Iran: in the 13th century the Mongols swept as far west as Cairo where they were defeated in 1300 and subsequently settled down to consolidate their Empire, which lasted for over a century. Within the Empire local rule was by resident Khans and their followers. When the Empire broke up many of these remained in Iran. A ITV programme 25August1993 showed how their descendants are readily identifiable 700 years later, the camera panned the people in the Bazaar in Teheran; the majority were typical Arabs but mingling with them were several that had the broad flat face with narrow widely spaced eyes typical of Mongolians. So if I look like an early Roman, it is certain that I had a Roman ancestor. This is not surprising since the British Isles were part of the Roman Empire for nearly 5 centuries and there was considerable movement of people throughout. Julius Caesar made the first landing in Britain, on 26-27th August 55BC between Deal and Walmer in East Kent. Though it was not until a century later, in the summer of 43AD, that a permanent settlement was established. The Romans slowly subdued the ancient British tribes and eventually in 62-63AD, some 100 years after their first landing in Kent they finally occupied Cornwall. They stayed for over 300 years, until 401AD, and controlled every aspect of life. The army was mainly mercenaries from the Roman colonies, 3 the number from Rome itself was small and mainly restricted to the ruling elite. During the occupation there must have been numerous liaisons between the Roman men and the British women and from 220AD, for the last 180 years of the occupation, they were officially permitted to marry. Many children must have been born from these relationships, illicit and approved, who would have inherited genes from their Roman fathers that would then be passed on to successive generations. Consequently it is inevitable that some of the descendants will have facial features and body build that resemble their original Roman ancestor; myself, and my two brothers and father, who I resemble closely, appear to be in this category; we resemble our unknown Roman ancestor. It is interesting to speculate whether he was stationed at Trematon Castle which was the headquarters of the 2nd Augustan Legion; it lies in the heart of the area in which the Lees lived * Museo del Palazzo dei Conservatore,Salle III-Braccio Nuovo;Piazzo del Campidiglio, Rome Pre-Roman: Ancient British & Celtic Ancestors My Roman ancestor`s liaison must have been with a local British woman since recent research has shown that few, if any, women came with the invaders into Britain. So who was my ancestral British mother? Recent (1998) genetic research by The Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford compared the Mitochondria of 6000 present-day Britons with that in 20 ancient skeletons from Britain and the Continent and found that over 95% of the former had inherited their Mitochondria from women who had lived in Britain over 10,000 years ago and that 25% of them had inherited it from women who lived in Britain 24,000 years ago. Men cannot pass their Mitochondria on to their offsprings, only mothers can. So the results show that there was little introduction of new Mitochondria into the British population after the Stone Age. So my Roman`s liaison must have been with a woman whose ancestors were Early Stone Age British. Genetically, other than her Mitochondria, her DNA would have been a mixture inherited from the men of the different tribes that had invaded and settled in Cornwall in pre-Roman times. We are fortunate that in Cornwall these settlers left an abundance of evidence of themselves which is still well preserved. We can see the remains of their huts, stand within them, touch the stone boundary walls of their fields and realise that these are spots where our 200th+ to 60th great grandfathers stood, ate and slept.