William Lee, C. 1751 - After 1810

William Lee arrived at Mount Vernon in 1768, after George Washington purchased him from Mary Lee, a wealthy Virginia widow.

For two decades, William Lee served as Washington’s enslaved manservant, accompanying Washington nearly everywhere. He organized Washington’s personal affairs and papers, delivered messages, prepared the General’s uniform, and helped him dress. Lee was well known throughout the army.

William Lee served with Washington throughout the Revolutionary War. He was responsible for organizing the general’s personal affairs, including his voluminous papers, and holding his spyglass. As the attendant to a prominent figure, Lee became a minor celebrity. Postwar visitors to Mount Vernon occasionally sought out the “famed body-servant of the commander-in-chief. After the war, Lee lived with knee injuries. He was assigned work as a shoemaker in a room by the greenhouse at Mount Vernon. Lee was freed at Washington’s death by the terms of his will. 

When the retired president died, William Lee was the only enslaved person freed immediately in his will. Washington provided Lee with an annual allowance of $30 for the rest of his life, noting, “this I give him as a testimony of my sense of his attachment to me, and for his faithful services during the Revolutionary War.” Lee remained on the estate until his own death in 1810. He is believed to be buried in the enslaved cemetery at Mount Vernon.

Learn more about William on his Faces of Mount Vernon’s Enslaved Community webpage.