Thomas Bee (396)

Thomas Bee (1725–1812) was a lawyer, politician, slaveholder, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1781. Born in Charlestown, South Carolina, Bee relocated to England to pursue law at Oxford, and read law in 1761. He returned to South Carolina that year and opened a private practice, then began serving in the South Carolina Assembly the following year. For the next three decades, Bee served South Carolina in a variety of roles: as Commissioner for stamping and issuing paper bills of credit (1769), State Representative (1778-1779,1781-1782,1786-1788), speaker (1777-1779), Lieutenant Governor (1780), Delegate to Continental Congress (1780-1781), and State Senator (1788-1790), all the while maintaining his private law practice. He took an active role during the Revolutionary War and served on the South Carolina Council of Safety (1775-1776). In 1790, President George Washington appointed him Judge for the U.S. District Court of South Carolina. Bee served as judge for the rest of his life, publishing reports in 1810 before dying two years later in Pendleton, South Carolina.