Col. Jeremiah Lee Lecture & Dinner

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Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati
cordially invites you and a guest
to attend a lecture and private tour of the Jeremiah Lee mansion in Marblehead
followed by dinner at the Boston Yacht Club
on Wednesday, October 3rd.

• Date & Time: Wednesday, October 3, 2018 at 5:00 PM
  
  
• Location:

  Jeremiah Lee Mansion & Marblehead Museum (Tour & Lecture)
  170 Washington Street
  Marblehead, Massachusetts
  
  Boston Yacht Club (Dinner)
  1 Front Street
  Marblehead, Massachusetts

• Price: $46 per person

Additional Information

Guests attending the dinner are invited to park for the evening at the Boston Yacht Club, One Front Street, Marblehead, which is two blocks’ walk from the mansion and museum.

Tours of Lee’s mansion will begin promptly at 5 PM.

The talk, to be given across the street from Lee’s own home, will commence at 6 PM in the rooms of the Marblehead Museum, 170 Washington Street.

Following the talk, there will be a buffet dinner at the Boston Yacht Club. Price for the dinner is $46. Advance reservations required to include both the lecture and the dinner. Please go on line at www.ma-soc.org prior to Wednesday, September 26.

Historian Robert Booth will speak about the role of Col. Jeremiah Lee of Marblehead as a fabulously wealthy colonial merchant who turned against the empire and became a leader of the rebel movement in Massachusetts.

Jeremiah Lee (1721-1775) was among the most successful American shipping merchants, drawing his wealth from the exportation of salt codfish and the importation of commodities from the Caribbean and southern Europe, with plenty of illicit commerce along several coasts.

In the 1750s and 1760s Lee, owner of the town’s grandest house as of 1766, and his brother-in-law Robert “King” Hooper, were friendly rivals for the social and business leadership of Marblehead, then second only to Boston as the largest and richest town in Massachusetts. As Britain cracked down on the wide-open trade of the American merchants, Hooper and Lee diverged: Hooper cultivated the royal authorities and gained preference for his shipping, while Lee, believing that his business would be destroyed, became the leader of the anti-British faction, at the risk of all that he had amassed.

By the 1770s war seemed inevitable, and Lee, the colonel of the large militia regiment of Marblehead, prepared his men by bringing in a drill instructor. He imported munitions and weapons through his overseas contacts and traveled in Maryland and Virginia to arrange for supplies and to encourage his counterparts there toward rebellion.

Col. Jeremiah Lee became an outspoken rebel politician and served as the chairman of the Essex County rebel congress in fall, 1774, which issued its own demands similar to Boston’s Suffolk Resolves. In the counsels of the Massachusetts rebel congress, formed in October 1774, Lee stood very high. By the spring of 1775 he was a leader of the rebel movement intent on driving the British army out of Boston.

Jeremiah Lee was headed for a historic role in history when he died suddenly in May 1775, of illness contracted from having fled into a field when the British came up the road on the eve of the Battle of Lexington & Concord on April 19. He was the first rebel leader to die in the cause of independence.

Booth’s talk is held in connection with the 250th anniversary celebration of Lee’s achievements, hosted by the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati and the Marb lehead Museum,

Robert Booth of Marblehead is a historian and author, most recently of the books The Women of Marblehead (2016), a feminist history of the town in the 19th century; Mad for Glory (2015), about Americans in the Pacific in 1813 nation-building and engaging in imperialism; and Death of an Empire (2011), about the 1820s demise of Salem as a worldwide center of trade.

For further information, please contact Herbert J Motley Jr., VP of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati, 617-943-5657

Buffet Menu

Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati
Boston Yacht Club
Shipyard Dinner Buffet

Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad
Served with Warm Artisan Rolls and Butter

Chicken Saltimbocca, Prosciutto, Provolone and Sage in a Mushroom-White Wine Sauce

Baked Haddock, Classic Ritz Crust with Lemon Butter Sauce

Rice Pilaf, Asparagus

Brownies, Berry Tartlets

Freshly Brewed Coffee, Decaffeinated Coffee, Assorted Tea