He attended Eton College in England and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated in 1764. The title description of his thesis is: Dissertatio medica inauguralis, de cortice peruviano: quam ... ex auctoritate ... Gulielmi Robertson ... Academiae Edinburgenae praefecti ... pro gradu doctoratus ... eruditorum examini subjicit, Arthur Lee, Virginiensis. Ad diem septembris ... – Edinburgi : in aedibus A. Donaldson et J. Reid, MDCCLXIV. – 2 p. l., 47 p. ; 20 cm. on 13 May 1765 he matriculated at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.