Comments
Venn: admitted sizar (age 17) at Caius, 2/11/1629. Son of William, merchant, of Nantwich, Cheshire. Born there. Matriculated 1629; Scholar 1632; BA 1633-4; MA from Peterhouse 1637; DD 1664 (Lit. Reg.). Fellow of Peterhouse 1636. Ordained deacon (Peterborough) 4/6/1637. Rector of St Martin Orgar London, 1643. Rector of St Leonard Shoreditch 1644. An ordainer of the ministers on the presbyterian model, 1644. Rector of Hatfield, Herts, from 1647; and again, 1660-84. Master of Royston Hospital, 1650. Rector of Little Gaddesden 1655; and of Berkhampstead St Peter, 1656. Chaplain to Monck, Duke of Albemarle. Conformed after the Restoration. Died 1684; buried at Hatfield, M.I. there. Father of Nathaniel (1665), Richard (1678) and John (1679). Venn, I. 292; DNB under 'Nathaniel'.
There is some confusion about the date of Lee's ordination to the priesthood. On 4/6/1637 Richard Lee Fellow of Peterhouse was admitted to the diaconate by Bishop Francis Dee of Peterborough (Northamptonshire RO, X.959/4 fo. 72r) and this may well be the same man as Richard Lea, MA of Peterhouse (CCEd Person ID 118722), ordained by Bishop Wren of Ely to the prieshood on 8/6/1639. Nevertheless, a post-Restoration Exhibit Book (see below) states that Lee was ordained by Wren to the priesthood on 9/7/1649, when Wren was a prisoner in the Tower of London. This is quite incompatible with Lee as a Presbyterian ordainer, assuming that Venn's entry is accurate. The most likely explanation is that the date of 1649 is incorrect.