Richard Henry Lee, in his Resolution on the 7th of June 1776 during the Second Continental Congress, puts forth the motion to declare Independence from Great Britain, which reads (in part):

    Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

Lee was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia to Col. Thomas Lee and Hannah Harrison Ludwell Lee on January 20, 1732.

He was raised and came from a line of military officers, diplomats, and legislators.

His father, Thomas Lee, was the governor of Virginia before his death in 1750.

Lee had spent most of his early life in Stratford, Virginia with his family at Stratford Hall.

Here he was tutored and taught in a variety of skills, and witnessed the very beginning of political career as his father sent him around to neighboring planters with the intention for Lee to become associated with neighboring men of like prominence.

In 1748, at sixteen, Lee had left Virginia for Yorkshire, England, to complete his formal education at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield.

Both of his parents died in 1750 and, in 1753, after touring Europe, he returned to Virginia to help his brothers settle the estate his parents had left behind.
 
Lee had been appointed justice of the peace in Westmoreland County in 1757.

In 1758 he had won election to the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he met Patrick Henry.

An early advocate of independence, Lee had been one of the first to create Committees of Correspondence among the many independence-minded Americans in the various colonies.

In 1766, almost ten years before the American Revolutionary War, Lee is credited with having authored the Westmoreland Resolution, which was publicly signed by prominent landowners who met at Leedstown, Westmoreland County, Virginia on February 27, 1766.

This resolution was signed by four brothers of George Washington as well as Gilbert Campbell.

In August 1774, Lee had been chosen as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

Lee had returned to Virginia by the time Congress voted on and adopted the Declaration of Independence, but he signed the document when he returned to Congress.