Born into the famous Lee family of Virginia, Arthur Lee was a younger son of Thomas and Hannah Ludwell Lee of Stratford Hall in Westmoreland County, Virginia. He was brother to Declaration of Independence signers Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee. Arthur Lee is best known for his diplomatic services to the Colony and State of Virginia during the Revolutionary period. While his more famous brothers often receive greater credit for their contributions to the founding of the United States, the younger Lee worked assiduously abroad to obtain support for the American cause. His advice, sent back to Virginia in the form of letters, covered many of the issues concerning the colonists, ranging from Indian affairs to the significant debt that burdened many Virginians prior to the Revolution to the international slave trade. What was perhaps most intriguing about his enthusiasm for helping the Indians, middle and lower classes of Virginians, and slaves was the fact that he came from one of the most powerful and wealthiest families in Virginia. Many historians believe it was Arthur Lee’s significant time abroad and away from the environment in which he was brought up that contributed to his ability to separate himself from his landed gentry background.

Indeed, before he reached adolescence Lee was spending a great deal of time outside of Virginia. He attended Eton College in England, studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and then took up the study of law at the Temple Bar in London from 1766-1770. He received a commission to serve as agent for the Massachusetts Colony in England and France and was later appointed correspondent of Congress in London in 1775. He served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates during the 1780s and as a member of the Continental Congress. During the American Revolution he was sent to seek support from Spain and Prussia, but was unsuccessful in this endeavor. In 1778 he assisted with the negotiations of treaties with France. While in France, he had a major falling out with Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane. Lee was eventually recalled back to Virginia.

Privately, Lee established a home in Urbanna, Virginia, named Landsdowne. He never married. He died in 1792 and is buried at Landsdowne.