Who Was Charity Lee?

Continuing Research into Her Earlier Marriage and Children

A separate Lee-family investigation

The Central Question

Charity Lee’s obituary says that she had been “the widow, the wife, and the mother of a number of children.” Did Charity have a husband and children before she married William Lee? If so, who was her first husband, what surname did she use when she married Lee, and which children belonged to each marriage?

This question is being studied separately from the William Brown investigation. Shared Richmond and Burke County records may appear in both projects, but the family conclusions must not be merged without proof.

What the 1799 Obituary Says

Died, on Thursday last, in her 54th year, after a few days severe illness, which she bore with great patience and Christian resignation, Mrs. Charity Lee, wife of William Lee, Esq. of this county.
She had been the widow, the wife, and the mother of a number of children, whom she had raised with the most tender circumspection—burdened with the care of infants, separated from the helping hand of a father and a husband by a cruel war, she had to meet the horrors and vicissitudes of the late revolution…

Source: Augusta Herald, 29 August 1799. View or download the original Charity Lee obituary image (PDF). The newspaper image should be compared carefully with later transcriptions.

What Is Currently Supported

Charity died in Richmond County, Georgia, shortly before 29 August 1799, in her fifty-fourth year, suggesting a birth around 1745.
At her death she was the wife of William Lee.
On 14 July 1792, William Lee sold Levin Collins 500 acres of pine land at the fork of Spirit Creek. The deed was signed by William LEE and Charity LEE (x). This directly places Charity in the Richmond County property record, but it gives no prior surname or list of children. Richmond County Deed Book C, pp. 394–396; recorded 19 July 1792.
William Lee’s travel narrative places his marriage in Pensacola in June 1774, but the original marriage record and Charity’s name in that record still must be located.
William Lee recorded the birth of an unnamed daughter on 7 August 1781. Ball-family evidence identifies Charlotte Lee, later wife of William Bartholomew Ball, as a daughter of William and Charity Lee; the Ball Bible gives Charlotte’s birth as 27 August 1781.
The obituary calls Charity a widow and the mother of “a number of children,” but it does not name the children or explain whether all were William Lee’s.

Evidence caution: the obituary strongly raises the earlier-marriage question, but its wording alone does not identify a first husband or divide the children between marriages.

Research Questions

What was Charity’s birth surname?
Who was her first husband, and when and where did he die?
Was Charity already a widow when she married William Lee in Pensacola in 1774?
What original record documents the Lee marriage, and what surname does it give Charity?
Which children were living with Charity during the Revolutionary War?
Who were the “infants” mentioned in the obituary?
Did any children use the surname of Charity’s first husband?
Was Charlotte Lee born in Burke County, Richmond County, or elsewhere?
Can probate, guardianship, deed, church, court, newspaper, or military-pension records identify Charity’s children?
Can descendants be separated through autosomal DNA networks and documentary evidence?

Priority Search Plan

Review and cite the original obituary: inspect the 29 August 1799 Augusta Herald image, then search adjoining notices and possible reprints.
Find the 1774 marriage: search British West Florida and Pensacola church, civil, military, merchant, and notarial records for William Lee marrying a woman named Charity.
Search under an unknown prior surname: identify widows named Charity in Pensacola and Gulf Coast records before June 1774.
Reconstruct Lee’s household: extract every child, dependent, traveling companion, witness, and associate from Lee’s 1808 narrative and correspondence.
Work the Georgia counties: search Richmond, Burke, Columbia, Effingham, and neighboring counties for deeds, probate, guardianships, tax records, court minutes, marriage records, and newspapers.
Trace land and neighbors: compare the Spirit Creek, Little River, Sherrill’s Creek, and Bark Camp Creek clusters with Ball, Brown, Allen, Collins, Bostick, Belcher, and Lee associates.
Build separate child profiles: create floating-tree profiles for every proposed child and connect none to Charity until age, place, associates, and original records agree.
Use DNA cautiously: cluster descendants only after a documented path to a proposed child has been built.

Working Evidence Table

Date	Event	Status
About 1745	Estimated birth based on dying in her fifty-fourth year.	Calculated estimate
Before June 1774?	Possible earlier marriage and children.	Research hypothesis from obituary wording
June 1774	William Lee reported marrying in Pensacola.	Narrative evidence; original record needed
7/27 Aug. 1781	Birth associated with Charlotte Lee.	Conflicting contemporary/family dates
1788	William Brown and William Lee were documented in the same Spirit Creek land neighborhood near Augusta.	Documented neighborhood context
14 July 1792	William Lee sold 500 acres at the fork of Spirit Creek to Levin Collins. William Lee and Charity Lee signed the deed; Charity made her mark.	Documented deed
1 January 1796	Charlotte Lee married William Bartholomew Ball in Richmond County, Georgia.	Documented marriage bond
22 August 1799	Charity Lee died in Richmond County, in her fifty-fourth year.	Calculated from obituary wording
29 August 1799	The Augusta Herald published Charity Lee’s obituary, identifying her as William Lee’s wife, a widow, and the mother of a number of children.	Contemporary newspaper evidence
2 October 1809	William Bartholomew Ball received a Georgia passport to travel through the Creek Nation toward the Mississippi Territory.	Documented passport
Late 1809–1810	Charlotte Lee Ball and William Bartholomew Ball likely left the Augusta–Richmond County area after approximately thirteen to fourteen years of marriage there.	Supported migration range
1811	William Bartholomew Ball’s Mississippi land claim places the family in the Mississippi Territory by this period.	Documented land evidence

Current Conclusion

Charity’s identity before her marriage to William Lee remains unproved. The 1799 obituary provides a strong reason to investigate an earlier husband and children, but it does not supply their names. No proposed first husband or child should be accepted without original records and a documented chain of evidence.

Research contributions are welcome. Particularly valuable items include Pensacola marriage records, the original obituary image, Lee correspondence, Georgia probate and guardianship records, and documented descendant DNA evidence.

Principal Sources

Augusta Herald, 29 August 1799 — Download the Charity Lee obituary PDF.
William Lee, published travel narrative, 1808.
R. C. Ball compilation, William Ball plus William Lee (002).
Ball family Bible transcription concerning Charlotte Lee.
William Lee Georgia property and Richmond County research files.
Elizabeth Shown Mills, report to R. C. Ball concerning William Bartholomew Ball, Charlotte Lee, and Richmond County, Georgia, 21 December 1985; abstract of Richmond County Deed Book C, pp. 394–396.

This is an active research page. Findings will be revised as original records are recovered.

William Lee Research Pages

Researchers should use these pages in the following order:

Lee Family Page — main Lee-family landing page.
William Lee Research Record and Source Registry — BFHA-RC-000046 — principal research record and travel narrative.
Ball Family Georgia Collection — Burke County, Bark Camp Creek, Richmond County, Spirit Creek, Charlotte Lee, and the Ball–Lee connection.
Who Was Charity Lee? — Continuing Research — Charity’s identity, possible earlier marriage and children, and the 1799 obituary.
Allied Families Archive Group — entry point to the William Lee archive record.
Complete Digital Archive — full Ball Family Association research archive.