Thomas' father, the second Richard, had thrown at least one crumb in the direction of his younger son. When he was compelled by age to resign as naval officer of the Potomac, in 1710, the elder Lee persuaded Governor Alexander Spotswood to give this post to his son, Thomas. So, before he was twenty-one, Thomas was reporting on the maritime trade of his district, and collecting fees from the ships' captains. Through his uncle, Edmund Jenings, Thomas had acquired the position of manager of the Northern Neck proprietary. His uncle, who was then in England, had a lease on the proprietary at that time. Thomas had opened a land office at Matholic. He also traveled on horseback all over the Northern Neck so that in this way he well knew the lands of that vast domain. By the time Thomas was established, and thirty-two years old, his thoughts turned to marriage. He went "a-courting" down at Green Spring, near Jamestown, and won the hand of young Hannah Harrison Ludwell. When Hannah came as a bride to Matholic she added to the family fortune with her dowry of six hundred pounds sterling. Things were going well with Thomas Lee. Now, on this winter's night, he probably went up to bed with a contented mind. Sometime during the night Thomas awoke suddenly to find the house in flames around him. He shook Hannah and they grabbed up the children from their beds and started for the stairs only to find that it was too late to get down that way. The heat was hot on his back when he helped Hannah over the window sill and watched her fall to the ground--fifteen feet. He dropped his small children and then jumped himself. Just in time, too, for he was hardly on the ground before the roof caved in--too late to save the twelve-year-old white servant girl who was asleep in the house. Shivering in their night clothes the family watched the barns and outbuildings burn to the ground, shocked into silence by the loss of the little servant. Later the ashes of the house were searched for Hannah's silver. When not a trace of it was found the origin of the fire seemed evident--burglars had broken in, stolen the silver and other valuables, and then set fire to the house. The villians who burned the house were never caught. There were at large a number of English convicts who had been transported to Westmoreland as indentured servants. They had joined together and formed a lawless gang--they frightened and robbed the citizens of the countryside. Thomas Lee in his line of duty as a local magistrate had no doubt at some time given them reason to want revenge. These convicts may have burned the house.