Will Lee had been Washington's "body servant" through the Revolutionary War, the 1787 Constitutional Convention, and at Mount Vernon. In April 1789, when Washington set out for New York City to be inaugurated as the first President of the United States, Lee was too ill to make the trip. The fourteen-year-old went in Lee's place, although Lee joined Sheels in the presidential household several weeks later. The two were related: Lee's brother was married to Sheels' aunt.