Ball Family Association

Preserving and Sharing Ball Family History Since 1699

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, 4 September 1799. Because the notice says “Thursday last,” Charity died on 28 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, on 28 August 1799, in her fifty-fourth year, suggesting a birth around 1745.
  • At her death she was the wife of William Lee.
  • A cited abstract of Richmond County Deed Book C, pp. 394–396, states that on 14 July 1792 William Lee sold Levin Collins 500 acres of pine land at the fork of Spirit Creek and that William LEE and Charity LEE (x) executed the deed; it was recorded 19 July 1792. This places Charity in the Richmond County property record but gives no prior surname or list of children. The original deed-page image remains an important archive pull.
  • 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.
  • Primary newspaper notices show that William Lee was placed on Richmond County’s justice list in 1790 and elected county coroner in January 1792. Abimelech Hawkins was coroner by October 1793 and again in 1795, and Thomas Sandwich held the office in 1797. William Lee was therefore a former coroner, not the documented incumbent when Charity died in August 1799.
  • Burke County plats show William Lee with 200 acres in 1786 and 400 acres of pine land on both sides of Brier Creek in 1788. The 1786 tract adjoined Raymond Demere, William Cherry, John Sharp, and a landowner best read as Fleming. Two William Fleming plats made within weeks of Lee’s survey point toward Lamberts Creek, but no reciprocal plat yet names Lee. Bark Camp Creek remains a family-location hypothesis rather than wording found on Lee’s plat.
  • 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. A separate item printed immediately above Charity’s obituary concerned an unnamed woman killed by her husband and a coroner’s inquest. It must not be treated as Charity’s inquest without an original record naming her.

Research Questions

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

Priority Search Plan

  1. Review and cite the original obituary: inspect the 4 September 1799 Augusta Herald image, then search adjoining notices and possible reprints.
  2. 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.
  3. Search under an unknown prior surname: identify widows named Charity in Pensacola and Gulf Coast records before June 1774.
  4. Reconstruct Lee’s household: extract every child, dependent, traveling companion, witness, and associate from Lee’s 1808 narrative and correspondence.
  5. Work the Georgia counties: search Richmond, Burke, Columbia, Effingham, and neighboring counties for deeds, probate, guardianships, tax records, court minutes, marriage records, and newspapers.
  6. Trace land and neighbors: compare the Spirit Creek deeds, the Little River tract beside William Lee’s and Sherral’s land, the Burke Brier Creek plat, the Fleming/Lamberts Creek lead, and the Bark Camp Creek family-location hypothesis with Ball, Brown, Allen, Collins, McMillan, Sharp, Demere, Cherry, and Lee associates.
  7. Resolve the coroner claim: retrieve the original 1799 House Journal entry cited by later researchers and search surviving Richmond coroner records. Do not merge the adjacent unnamed murder-and-inquest notice with Charity’s obituary.
  8. 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.
  9. 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
5 October 1786William Lee’s 200-acre Burke County survey adjoined Raymond Demere, William Cherry, John Sharp, and a landowner best read as Fleming. No watercourse is stated.Original plat reviewed; exact locality unresolved
3 September 1788William Lee’s 400-acre Burke County plat covered pine land on both sides of Brier Creek.Original plat reviewed
1788 William Brown and William Lee were documented in the same Spirit Creek land neighborhood near Augusta. Documented neighborhood context
26 June 1790A published legislative notice placed William Lee on Richmond County’s list of justices.Contemporary newspaper evidence
14 January 1792Richmond County’s justices elected William Lee, Esq., county coroner.Contemporary newspaper evidence
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. Deed abstract/citation; original image needed
October 1793Election returns identify Abimelech Hawkins—not William Lee—as Richmond County coroner.Contemporary newspaper evidence
1795The Richmond tax digest lists William Lee in Captain Lyon’s District with 322 acres of pine land.Original tax digest reviewed
1 January 1796 Charlotte Lee married William Bartholomew Ball in Richmond County, Georgia. Documented marriage bond
28 August 1799 Charity Lee died in Richmond County, in her fifty-fourth year. Calculated from obituary wording
4 September 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, 4 September 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:
  1. Lee Family Page — main Lee-family landing page.
  2. William Lee Research Record and Source Registry — BFHA-RC-000046 — principal research record and travel narrative.
  3. Ball Family Georgia Collection — Burke County, Bark Camp Creek, Richmond County, Spirit Creek, Charlotte Lee, and the Ball–Lee connection.
  4. Who Was Charity Lee? — Continuing Research — Charity’s identity, possible earlier marriage and children, and the 1799 obituary.
  5. Allied Families Archive Group — entry point to the William Lee archive record.
  6. Complete Digital Archive — full Ball Family Association research archive.