David Lewis, Sr., of Albemarle County

Biography

David Lewis, son of John Lewis, was born before 5 May 1695 at St. Peter's Parish, Hanover Co., Virginia, USA; Davis [1989:270] says b. in Hanover Co. Find A Grave says b. in New Kent Co. There may have been a county border change between 1695 and today.2,3 He was baptized on 5 May 1695 at St. Peter's Parish, Hanover Co., Virginia, USA.

He married Anne Elizabeth “Betty” Terrell, daughter of William Terrell Sr. and Susannah Waters, in 1717 at New Kent Co., Virginia, USA, His 1st wife. His 1st wife died in 1734.

David Lewis married Unknown (?) after 1734 His 2nd wife.

David Lewis married Mary McGrath in 1759 His 3rd wife; her 2nd husband.

David Lewis died on 21 October 1778 at Albemarle Co., Virginia, USA, at age 83.David Lewis was buried after 21 October 1778 at Burial location unknown.

B 5. David Lewis, Sr., the fifth child of John, the Immigrant, was born about the year 1685, in Hanover county, Va. About 1750 he moved to Albemarle county, where he died in 1779, as above mentioned. He raised eight children by Miss Terrell, his first wife, and three by Mary McGrath, his third wife, viz. :

Children by Miss Terrell:

• C 1. William Terrell, born 1718 ; married Sallie Martin.
• C 2. Susannah, born 1720 ; married Alexander Mackey.
• C 3. Hannah, born 1722 ; married James Hickman.
• C 4. Sarah, born 1724 ; married Abraham Musick.
• C 5. David, Jr., born 1726 ; married Rebecca Stovall and Elizabeth Lockhart. C 6. John, born 1728 ; married Sarah Taliaferro and Susan Clarkson.
• C 7. Joel, born 1730 ; married Mary Tureman, Mrs. Gordon, and Lucy Daniels. C 8. Anna, born 1733 ; married Joel Terrell and Stephen Willis.

Children by Mary McGrath:

• C 9. Elizabeth, born 1754 ; married John Martin.
• C 10. Colonel James, born 1756 ; married Lucy Thomas and Mary Marks.
• C 11. Miriam, born 1759 ; married Colonel Gabriel Madison.

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GENEALOGY of the Lewis Family IN AMERICA, FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY DOWN TO THE PRESENT TIME. WM. TERRELL LEWIS, 1893, pp. 57-59

"DAVID LEWIS, SR., OF ALBEMARLE COUNTY, VA.

David Lewis, Sr. , fifth child of John Lewis, Sr. , was born in Hanover, Va. , about the year 1685. About the year 1717, he married his first wife. Miss Terrell, daughter, it is said, of Joel Terrell, by whom he raised eight children; she dying in 1734, he married his second wife, by whom he had no issue, and her name is not known."

"About the year 1750 David Lewis moved from Hanover county and settled in Albemarle county, Va. Albemarle was then a new county, having been carved out of Goochland in 1744. In 1753, after he moved to Albemarle county, he married his third wife, the widow of Dr. Hart, of Philadelphia, Pa., whose maiden name was Mary McGrath, by whom he raised three children. After the death of his third wife he was engaged to be married the fourth time, but died very suddenly before the consummation of the nuptials."

"After David Lewis, Sr. , moved and settled near where Charlottesville now stands, in Albemarle county, he was offered five hundred acres of the best quality of land in Virginia, lying some forty or fifty miles west of the then settlements, for a pair of buckskins, which he could have killed almost any day and dressed the next, but he thought at that time the back country‐ would not be settled in an age, and that the land would be of no value to him."

"In his old age he sometimes taught school gratuitously for the benefit of the poor. He never inflicted corporal punishment upon his pupils, but if any of them violated his rules during the week, he would, on Friday evening, tie a bundle of rods to their backs and send them home."

"He was a very large man with light hair and blue eyes, of strict integrity, benevolent character, and an exemplary member of the Presbyterian church. David Lewis, Sr., died in Albemarle county, VA., in 1779, from flux, brought on by over‐exertion and drinking too much cold water on a hot summer day, in August, after cutting down a tree in which there was a hawk's nest. His will was probated at the September term of the Albemarle County Court, in 1779. Stephen Willis, Anna Willis, Morning Clarkson, Robert Lewis, and Wm. Johnson were subscribing witnesses to said will ; and Joel Lewis, John Martin, James Lewis, and Taliaferro Lewis were his executors.'

DAVID LEWIS, SR., OF ALBEMARLE COUNTY, VA. B 5. David Lewis, Sr. , fifth child of John Lewis, Sr. , was born in Hanover, Va., about the year 1685. About the year 1717, he married his first wife, Miss Terrell, daughter, it is said, of Joel Terrell, by whom he raised eight children; she dying in 1734, he married his second wife, by whom he had no issue, and her name is not known. William, James and John Terrell were brothers of Anglo-Norman descent. They came to America about 1660 as huntsmen for King James the Second, of England, and settled in Gloucester county, Va. For their dexterity in hunting they were awarded by the King 1,500 acres of land each, to be selected by themselves in the counties of Hanover, Caroline and King George. According to the best historical and traditional evidence we can get, the family of Terrells in this country is of Anglo-Norman origin, and was founded in England by Sir Walter Tyrell, a Norman Knight, about A. D. 1066, when William the Conquerer took possession of that country. The ancient orthography of the name was Tyrell, Terrail, Tyrrell, Terrill, etc. General Wm. H. Harrison Terrell, of Indianapolis, La., and his brother, Lynch M. Terrell, of Atlanta, Ga. , have, for several years, been engaged in tracing up the Terrell family. General W. H. H. Terrell died recently, but his brother, L. M. Terrell, is still en gaged in his inquiry after the names of the family and designs pub lishing in pamphlet or book-form the result of his researches. About the year 1750 David Lewis moved from Hanover county and settled in Albemarle county, Va. Albemarle was then a new county, having been carved out of Goochland in 1744. In 1753, after he moved to Albemarle county, he married his third wife, the widow of Dr. Hart, of Philadelphia, Pa., whose maiden name was Mary McGrath, by whom he raised three children. After the death of his third wife he was engaged to be married the fourth time, but died very suddenly before the consummation of the nuptials. He, being advanced in life, was quite bald, consequently wore a wig, and on retiring at night would hang his wig on the tester over his bed.

He, being subject to nightmares, would often awake during the night after dreaming that the witches were riding him. On one occasion he awoke during a frightful dream that the witches were riding him. He sprang up in his bed, making, at the same time, a desperate effort to free himself from the clutches of the witch. Dur ing his struggle to extricate himself from the night fiend he knocked down his wig which fell upon him. He seized it with avidity and tore it to pieces, exclaiming, at the same time: " Oh, I have caught you at last, have I? You have been riding me a long time." The next morning when he arose and looked on his ruined wig he remarked, dolefully: "There is fifteen shillings gone." He was once engaged in the mercantile business and had an in terest in a cargo of goods then being imported from England. News came that the vessel was wrecked and the goods lost. Upon the reception of this information he started on horseback to Norfolk, Va. , to ascertain the fact. At twelve o'clock, when near Norfolk, he called by the wayside at a house to get his dinner and horse fed, when, to his surprise, he found the landlord to be an old acquaint ance. After dinner he called for his horse, but the landlord would not hear to his leaving and insisted on his tarrying with him until morning, to which he at length reluctantly agreed to do. At night when the hour for retiring arrived, he was waited on by a mulatto boy, who, with candle in hand, piloted him to a room above stairs. The boy pointed to a bed in the room upon which he could repose for the night and started down stairs with the candle, closing and locking the door after him. Our ancestor called out to the boy to bring back the candle and leave it in the room with him, to which the boy merely replied, that ' 'There is a mug under the bed, ' ' and did not return. He suspicioned that all was not right and made an examination under the bed to satisfy himself whether or not the boy had told the truth, when to his utter astonishment he found the body of a dead man concealed under the bed. His worst fears were now excited as to his own safety, as there was ,no way for him to make his escape from the room. He peeped through an aperture in the wall and descried in the distance men digging a grave by moon light. Sleep fled from his eyes. Being unarmed he resolved to watch the movements of the family during the night, lest they might sur prise him. He did not undress himself, but toused the bed and so arranged it as to make it appear as though he was asleep upon it. The door opened into his room. After the lapse of a few hours he heard the sound of footsteps stealthily ascending the stair-steps. He placed himself behind the door as it was opened, when the land lord entered with an ax in his hand and approached the bed where his supposed victim unconsciously reposed, when, with a Herculean blow, he sunk the ax into the bed. At this propitious moment our ancestor made his escape from the room by flight down the stair steps, at the foot of which he found another door closed with a latch ; this he opened with a jerk so hurriedly that the door closed again and latched itself, which he had to open the second time, but eventually made his escape from the house and made his way to Norfolk, where his partner resided. He there reported what had happened, when a posse of men were summomed, who returned, took the landlord and several of his men prisoners. On the trial they confessed that the dead man under the bed was the seventh they had murdered, and that our ancestor would have added one more to that number, had he not made his escape.

After David Lewis, Sr. , moved and settled near where Charlottes ville now stands, in Albemarle county, he was offered five hundred acres of the best quality of land in Virginia, lying some forty or fifty miles west of the then settlements, for a pair of buckskins, which he could have killed almost any day and dressed the next, but he thought at that time the back country would not be settled in an age, and that the land would be of no value to him. In his old age he sometimes taught school gratuitously for the benefit of the poor. He never inflicted corporal punishment upon his pupils, but if any of them violated his rules during the week, he would, on Friday evening, tie a bundle of rods to their backs and send them home. He was a very large man with light hair and blue eyes, of strict integrity, benevolent character, and an exemplary member of the Presbyterian church. David Lewis, Sr., died in Albemarle county, Va., in 1779, from flux, brought on by over-exertion and drinking too much cold water on a hot summer day, in August, after cutting down a tree in which there was a hawk's nest. His will was probated at the September term of the Albemarle County Court, in 1779. Stephen Willis, Anna Willis, Morning Clarkson, Robert Lewis, and Wm. Johnson were subscribing wit nesses to said will ; and Joel Lewis, John Martin, James Lewis, and Taliaferro Lewis were his executors. He gave a certain amount of property to James Lewis, Elizabeth Martin, Miriam Lewis. Hannah Hickman, Susannah Mackey, Sarah Musick, and Anna Willis, to make them equal with his other children. The balance of his property he divided equally between his eleven children. On the records of Albemarle county may be found the following conveyance : In 1750, a deed of gift from David Lewis, Sr., to William Terrell Lewis, David Lewis, Jr., John Lewis, and Joel Lewis, of lands, all lying on the branches of Moore's creek. In 1759, a deed of land from David Lewis and Mary, his wife, William Terrell and Frances, his wife, and Joel Terrell, to John Dabney.

About the year 1766, other members of the Lewis family, in Wales, attempted to emigrate to America. The vessel in which they sailed was captured by pirates near the Island of Jamaica, and all the passengers (except a few who made their escape during the capture) were landed on said island, where most of them perished. One of the Lewises who survived remained on the island and after ward communicated this fact to his relatives in Wales. Among those who made their escape from the vessel during its capture were one of the Lewises and a Welsh friend. Both being good swimmers, they swam to an adjacent island. Soon after landing upon this island they beheld a lion, from which they made their escape by climbing a cocoanut tree near by, where they were forced to shelter themselves and to subsist upon the fruit of the tree for two days and nights. There happened to be a nest of young birds in the tree, which they threw down to the lion, and to their great relief he disappeared. As a memento of that event they took from the tree a cocoanut and carved upon it a figure representing the vessel in which they crossed the ocean, a globe, and other designs, dated 1766. After the disappearance of the lion an English ship passed and took them back to their native land. The above-men tioned nut was in possession of the descendants of the Lewis family in Wales as late as the year 1857, so the author of this work was informed (during his correspondence with the family in Wales) by Ellis Evans, of Holywell, Flintshire, Wales, a descendant of the Lewis family.

Origins

JOHN LEWIS, OF HANOVER COUNTY, VIRGINIA.

John Lewis, Sr., emigrated from Wales to Virginia. He was born about 1640. It is not known whom he married. He died in Hanover county in 1726, where his will is on record. In his will he mentions the names of his six children, as follows:

• 2 1Mrs. Rebecca Lindsay, born about 1677.
• 2 2Abraham Lewis, born about 1679.
• 2 3Sarah Lewis, born about 1681.
• 2 4Mrs. Angelica Fullelove, born about 1688.
• 2 5David Lewis, born about 1685.
• 2 6John Lewis, Jr., born about 1687.

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References

• http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~jarvisx3/genealogy/ps02/ps02_013.htm
• https://www.anamericanfamilyhistory.com/Virginia%20Early%20Families...
• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Nov 12 2016, 21:35:51 UTC
• https://books.google.com/books?id=fu4wAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=...
• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Sep 24 2018, 4:40:43 UTC
• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Sep 23 2018, 1:46:17 UTC
• https://www.acvancestors.com/g2/p2407.htm#i72183