Bee, Thomas, 1739-1812

Thomas Bee (1739 – February 18, 1812) was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina and a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina.

Born in 1739 in Charleston in the Province of South Carolina, Bee attended the University of Oxford and read law. He entered private practice in Charleston from 1761 to 1762, and subsequently engaged in private practice from 1765 to 1769, 1769 to 1772, and 1782 to 1786, while also engaging in planting. Bee was a member of the South Carolina Commons House of Assembly from 1762 to 1765 and from 1772 to 1776, a Justice of the Peace in 1775, and a member of the Council of Safety in 1775 and 1776. Bee was a member of the South Carolina General Assembly from 1776 to 1778 and a a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1778 to 1779, 1781 to 1782, and 1786 to 1788, serving as Speaker in January and February 1779. He was a commissioner for stamping and issuing paper bills of credit in Charleston in 1769. Bee was Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina from 1779 to 1780 under Governor John Rutledge. He was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress (Continental Congress) from 1780 to 1781. In 1781, Bee was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society. He was a member of the South Carolina Senate from 1788 to 1790.

Bee was nominated by President George Washington on June 11, 1790, to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina vacated by Judge William Drayton Sr. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 14, 1790, and received his commission the same day. He published reports of the district court in 1810. His service terminated on February 18, 1812, due to his death in Pendleton, South Carolina. He was interred in Woodstock Cemetery in Goose Creek, South Carolina.