She was adored by her father, who nicknamed her 'Precious Life'. Her childhood at Arlington was a happy one, and she spent days playing in the gardens and orchards. She and her siblings grew up at Arlington House, the family's plantation that had been inherited by their mother. Lee Jr., Mary Custis Lee, Anne Carter Lee, Eleanor Agnes Lee, George Washington Custis Lee, and William Henry Fitzhugh Lee.Ī member of the planter class, she had a privileged upbringing typical for American gentry. Her maternal grandfather, George Washington Parke Custis, was George Washington's step-grandson and adopted son and the founder of Arlington House.

Through her grandmother, Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis, she was a descendant of William Fitzhugh.

Through her maternal great-grandmother, Eleanor Calvert, she descended from Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, making her a descendant of Charles II of England. On her mother's side, Lee was descended from several colonial families, including the Randolph family of Virginia. Her paternal grandparents, Henry Lee III and Anne Hill Carter Lee, were the ninth governor and first lady of Virginia. Ī member of the Lee family, she was a descendant of the colonist Richard Lee I.

At the time of her birth, her father was stationed at Fort Hamilton in New York City. She was the last member of the Lee family to be born at Arlington. Lee was her parents' fourth daughter and seventh child. She was named after her father's sister, Catherine Mildred Lee Childe. Mildred Childe Lee was born on February 10, 1846, at Arlington Plantation to Robert E. After her father's death, she assisted her brother, George Washington Custis Lee, as hostess while he served as president of Washington College. Lee never married or had children, instead devoting her time to caring for her parents in their later years. During the American Civil War, she sewed clothing for soldiers of the Confederate States Army and volunteered as a nurse in Confederate hospitals. A favorite of her father's, she was doted upon and given the nickname 'Precious Life', often being referred to by this nickname in family letters. She was the last member of the Lee family to be born at Arlington Plantation and had a privileged upbringing typical of members of the planter class, attending boarding schools in Winchester, Virginia, and Raleigh, North Carolina. Mildred Childe Lee (Febru– March 27, 1905) was an American society hostess and the youngest child of Robert E.

The People Therein by Mildred Lee