Memoir Of The Life Of Richard Henry Lee, And His Correspondence With The Most Distinguished Men In America and Europe, Illustrative Of Their Characters, And Of the Events Of The American Revolution. By His Grandson Richard H. Lee, Of Leesburg, Virginia. In Two Volumes. Philadelphia: H. C. Carey And I. Lea, Chestnut Street. William Brown, Printer. 1825.This biography of Richard Henry Lee is a first edition set written by Lee’s grandson and contains many of Lee's recollections and letters relating to the American Revolution and the debates on the Declaration of Independence in the Continental Congress.Lee (1732 - 1794), the grandfather, was an American statesman and Founding Father from Virginia who gained fame as an orator the equal of Patrick Henry, and best known for the Lee Resolution of June 1776, a motion in the Second Continental Congress which called for the colonies to be free and independent states - in effect, it called for independence from Great Britain - and this motion led to the American Declaration of Independence. Lee also served as president of the Continental Congress, was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation, a United States Senator from Virginia, and a member of the Lee family, an historically influential family in Virginia politics. In the original boards, both volumes have red and black labels with gilt lettering and horizontal gilt lines on the spines, brown marbled boards, blank endpapers with a Hoar bookplate, and the date of 1825 on the copyright pages. Volume I has a portrait frontispiece of Richard Henry Lee engraved by G. B. Ellis, a page dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Charles Carroll after the copyright page - all three were “surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence”, according to the author - with 253 pages of text, followed by an Appendix that ends on page 299. Volume 2 has the Hoar bookplate, no frontispiece, and is 238 pages long. The two volumes are 8vo. and measure 8 7/8 x 5 1/2 in. wide apiece, the bindings are tight; Volume I has penciled notes on the front paste-down, paper loss behind the Hoar bookplate, and tidemarks on some of the text. Both volumes have occasional browning or foxing, but generally on the endpapers or in the margins, some corner creases on the pages, and the front board on Volume II is slightly bowed out. We’ve only found one book with this title listed online, and that book was a single volume, published as two volumes in one. This is the only two-volume set we’ve been able to find listed anywhere, so a rare first edition set about an important figure in the history of Virginia and the founding of America. #1639#32