ABSTRACT
Sir Henry Lee, like many Elizabethan gentlemen in public service to the Queen, also enjoyed a rich private life with lands, family, friends and other private interests. A recent Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME)/English Heritage archaeological survey of Quarrendon reveals that the Lees lived in a substantial moated manor house, built in the first quarter of the sixteenth century. It is interesting to compare Lee's financial position with other gentlemen of the same status. Sir William Dormer served in Parliament with Sir Henry Lee as knight of the shire for Buckinghamshire on at least three occasions. The survival of villeinage into late Elizabethan England was something of an anachronism. Various manorial surveys had been undertaken earlier in the reign, probably with the purpose of manumission in mind, and Lee was fortunate that one existed for the royal manor of Long Bennington.
