After too long a hiatus, I’m taking up the Northen History blog again. As I mentioned in the last post, I’m going to record what I know about the Lewis side of the family that was my father’s mother’s side of the family – her name being Mattie Lewis. As I illustrated in the eloquent accompanying diagram, tracing the family from Mattie back five generations to Willoughby Lewis seems pretty straight forward. Where his father, William Lewis came from, though seems to be in dispute. At the other end the family chain, is the first Lewis to arrive in America, John Lewis, generally known as “the emigrant.”
Up until about 1949, little attention was paid to John Lewis, the emmigrant. A number of people with a famous Lewis in the family like Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis and Clark) or Fielding Lewis (George Washingon’s brother-in-law) felt that the family lines traced back to another Lewis named Richard. In 1949, however, a graveyard on Propotank Creek in Kings and Queens was discovered containing the following grave:
The grave yard discovered, that contained John Lewis grave also contained the graves of his son John, his daughter-in-law and his two grandson’s John and Edward. That Edward, however, was too young to have been same Edward who accompanied John Lewis the emigrant on his voyage to Virginia, and it is the missing Edward who is reputedly our ancestor.
Several other graves around him including his son John, Jr. and his grandchildren, established the fact that he was actually the ancestor of Meriweather Lewis and Fielding Lewis. It also made his grave the oldest known grave in King and Queens County, Virginia and connected him colonial records showing that he had been given the land in 1653 by the then governor of Virginia, Richard Bennet.
John Lewis was born in Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, Wales. He was part of a wealthy family. He married a cousin, Johanne Lewis and had three children. Johanne died shortly after the third child was born and John remarried. There is some uncertainty about why he left Wales to come to Virginia, but one story has it that he was the John Lewis who was supporter of King Charles when Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans revolted in England. In 1648, when Cromwell attachked, John Lewis led a defense of Chepstow Castle about 25 miles from the town where he lived. John and another relative William were captured and exiled to Barbados for two years. He then returned, sold his land in England and moved to Virginia.
The land that John was given along Propotank Creek by governor Bennett was given to him under the headright system. That means that he was awarded land for transporting other people over to the land of Virginia. He brought with him two sons by a new wife, probably Lidia who came with him. The two sons were John and Edward. His older brother William came as well. A sign in Virginia now marks the spot where this property existed.
The grave yard discovered, that contained John Lewis grave also contained the graves of his son John, his daughter-in-law and his two grandson’s John and Edward. That Edward, however, was too young to have been same Edward who accompanied John Lewis the emigrant on his voyage to Virginia, and it is the missing Edward who is reputedly our ancestor.
Northen History 