Rooney Lee
(1837-1891)
BIRTH
May 31, 1837
PLACE
Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial
DEATH
October 15, 1891
PLACE
Alexandria
FAMILY
FATHER
Robert E. Lee
(1807-1870)
MOTHER
Mary Anna Custis Lee
(1807-1873)
BROTHER
Light-Horse Harry Lee
(1756-1818)
SISTER
Anne Hill Carter Lee
(1773-1829)
BROTHER
George Washington Parke Custis
(1781-1857)
SISTER
Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis
(1788-1853)
BROTHER
Robert E. Lee
(1807-1870)
SISTER
Mary Anna Custis Lee
(1807-1873)
BROTHER
George Washington Custis Lee
(1832-1913)
SISTER
Anne Carter Lee
(1839-1862)
SISTER
Eleanor Agnes Lee
(1841-1873)
SISTER
Mildred Childe Lee
(1846-1905)
HOMES
NICKNAMES
Rooney
RELIGIOUS VIEWS
NOT YET RESEARCHED
NOT YET RESEARCHED
MEMBERSHIPS
VIRGINIA STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY PRESIDENT
AWARDS
William Henry Fitzhugh “Rooney” Lee (1837–1891) was Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Custis’s son, a soldier, planter and congressman. After U.S. Army service in Utah, he returned to his estates and joined the Confederacy in 1861, rising to cavalry major-general. He later farmed at Ravensworth, served in Virginia’s Senate and led its agricultural society. Elected to the U.S. House in 1887, he served until his death. His career is distinct from Revolutionary-era Henry Lees.
EARLY LIFE
The exact date and place of William Henry Fitzhugh Lee’s birth have not been established in the source used for this entry. The surviving biographical summary provides only limited evidence about childhood, schooling, and the daily circumstances of the household, so those details are not reconstructed here without documentation. What can be stated securely is that this person belonged to the interconnected family world from which HistoryGPS traces participants, relatives, and later descendants of the Revolutionary generation.
No distinct public profession or office for William Henry Fitzhugh Lee is established by the source summary used for this entry. The surviving record is primarily genealogical and documents family identity rather than an independent public career. Additional claims about employment, public service, or accomplishments have been omitted where the consulted source did not support them.
CAREER
DEATH
William Henry Fitzhugh “Rooney” Lee was Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Custis’s son, a soldier, planter and congressman. After U.S. Army service in Utah, he returned to his estates and joined the Confederacy in 1861, rising to cavalry major-general. Elected to the U.S. House in 1887, he served until his death. He was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives in 1887. On July 7, 1890, Lee became a charter member of the newly formed Virginia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and was appointed its first Vice President, reflecting both his public standing and his descent from multiple Revolutionary‑era patriot families. William Henry Fitzhugh Lee died on Oct 15, 1891, in Alexandria. The available biographical account does not describe a continuous final medical course. It gives no dependable sequence of treatment and last symptoms from which to reconstruct a more detailed bedside narrative.
Lee Chapel
100 N Jefferson St, Lexington, VA 24450
GRAVE
POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
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