A List of Surnames DerivedFrom English Locations(Lee / Lea / Leigh)LEE (variants LEA and LEIGH)  Reproduced courtesy of The Francis Frith Collection. Above: Lee, Devonshire
J. Henry Lea, in The Ancestry and Posterity of John Lea, of Christian Malford, Wiltshire, England, and of Pennsylvania in America, 1503-1906 (Philadelphia: Lea Bros., 1906), pp. 3-4, wrote: The surname of Lea or Lee is one of very frequent occurrence in all parts of England, of which country it is a characteristic cognomen, being practically unknown in Scotland, Ireland and Wales . . . The derivation, as a family name, appears in all cases to have been from its use as a place name, and in this connection its origin is probably derived either from the British word “Lle” (c.f. the Latin lucus, a place) or, probably more commonly, either from the Saxon world “Laey,” which in its primary use signified law (c. f., the Latin legis) and hence a place or district marked out by law or custom, thus becoming very nearly equivalent to our modern word Manor. This latter form appears as a frequent terminal to English place names. . . It may be noted also that there was a Danish word “Lee,” meaning a scythe, found in local use in Yorkshire, and an early member of the family of Lee of Lea Hall in Cheshire, adopted a scythe for his arms, probably in punning allusion to his name. Of whichever origin, we find the name (either alone, as a prefix, or as a termination) from a very early day in all parts of England (generally written in the old records in the Latinized form of Lega) and thus it must have given name to a large number of persons in no way related to one another, who became in turn the founders of as many totally distinct families, who at their inception, as well as in later times, occupied stations in every grade of social rank. No less than twelve totally distinct families of the name have come into eminence in England between the Conquest and the last century. There were:
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