The Lees of Quethiock Cornwall Their Family History from Ancient Times
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).
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