Robert Warden Lee was born in
Hanmer, Flintshire, the son of a vicar, the Revd Matthew Henry Lee. He was educated at
Rossall School, followed by
Balliol College, Oxford, where he was awarded a double first in classics. Following his graduation in 1891, he worked in the
Ceylon Civil Service, during which time he developed an interest in Roman-Dutch law, the legal system of
British Ceylon. Lee was called to the bar by
Gray's Inn in 1896. He practiced before the
Privy Council, mainly in appeals from Ceylon. He also taught law at
Worcester College, Oxford, where he was made fellow in 1903. He became the chair of Roman-Dutch law at London University in 1906. In 1914, he became dean of the Law Faculty of
McGill University in Montreal. In 1921, Lee returned to the
University of Oxford as its first professor of Roman-Dutch law, and as a Fellow of All Souls. He published multiple books on Roman-Dutch law throughout his career. In 1914, Lee married Amice Anna Botham, daughter of Sir John Macdonell, King's Remembrancer, with whom he had one daughter, Amice Macdonell, a children's writer. Lee retired from his professorship at Oxford in 1956, at the age of eighty-seven, and died in 1958. == Collection ==