In 1988, a study by William Thorndale was published in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, he stated that his research proved that Col Richard Lee was the son of a John Leyes, a clothier, and his wife Jane Hancock and that Richard had been born not at of Coton Hall in Shropshire England, but in Worcester England. In this publishing, Thorndale presented what appeared to be legitimate sources and arguments which carefully and systematically dispelled the accepted ancestral lineage of Col Richard Lee from the prominent English Lee's from Shropshire. Since that publishing, it appears that most of the research today has adopted this parentage of Richard Lee from this John Lyes and Jane Hancock assertion, even though this 1988 publishing had overridden the legal and historic documented facts that stated otherwise. I have discovered that there is no evidence of historical documentation that can back up Thorndale's claim.

This probably does not surprise many of you who research the Lee family that deal with more than often heated arguments, hidden records that were available no longer visible, mis-information, lines that seem to go nowhere and let us not forget the documented lines that constantly get thrown out of the Lee family because of purportedly wrong DNA matches from DNA projects that promote DNA from individuals whose lines cannot be properly verified, which by the way is an inappropriate misuse of DNA material and possible illegal (or will be in the near future when laws about DNA are updated) regardless of what is being said.

My research concludes, as I will demonstrate, that the whole John Leys (AKA Lee, Lies, etc.) and Jane Hancock as Col Richard Lee's parents is incorrect and possibly made up from a personal GEDCOM or research as there are no legitimate parish sources or records, other than Thorndale's publishing in 1988.