Ludwell Lee was born on October 13, 1760, at Chantilly, the Westmoreland County plantation of his parents, Richard Henry Lee and Anne Aylett Lee. He entered one of colonial Virginia’s most prominent families. His father was already a leading planter and public figure and would become a principal advocate of American independence, while the wider Lee family connected Ludwell to an influential network of legislators, diplomats, soldiers, and landowners. Chantilly was both a family home and the center of a large plantation economy sustained by enslaved labor. Lee therefore grew up amid considerable privilege, but also within the hierarchical social and economic system that shaped the Chesapeake gentry. As a boy, Ludwell was sent abroad for an education considered appropriate to the son of a wealthy Virginia gentleman. He studied first in England, including at St. Bees School, and later continued his education in France. His presence in Britain became uncomfortable once the colonies declared independence. A family account relates that, after an English gentleman predicted that Richard Henry Lee’s head would someday be displayed on Tower Hill, the teenage Ludwell answered defiantly that the British might have it when they could get it. Whether polished in later retelling or not, the story reflects the political pressures surrounding an American patriot’s son in wartime England. Richard Henry Lee took an active interest in his son’s preparation for adulthood. In a 1777 letter, he asked that Ludwell study natural and civil law, eloquence, and military subjects so that he could pursue either law or the army according to his abilities and his country’s needs. This combination of elite schooling, international experience, family patriotism, and expectations of public service shaped Ludwell before he returned to America and entered the Revolutionary struggle.