Thomas Lee was born in Northumberland County, Virginia on December 3, 1729. Later a resident of North Carolina, he served as a lieutenant and later captain in the Johnston County Regiment of the North Carolina Militia during the American Revolution. Lee owned enslaved people and in 1779 one of his enslaved people testified in a local court case involving witchcraft. Lee later moved to Hawkins County, Tennessee, where he died on July 2, 1816.