Col. John “The Pioneer” Lewis

John Lewis (1678-1782)

John Lewis was descended from Huguenots who emigrated from France to Ireland in 1685 (at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes). He left Ireland in 1729, a fugitive, after his oppressive landlord Charles of Clonmithgairn launched a brutal attack to evict Lewis’ family from premises of which he held a freehold lease. During the attack, Lewis’ wife was wounded and his invalid brother Edward was killed. John Lewis defended his family, slaying the landlord and one of his henchmen in the process.

In Virginia, shortly after William Beverley received his grant of 118,000+ acres in 1736, a grant of 100,000 acres was made to John Lewis and his associates, under the name of the “Greenbrier Company”. (John Lewis had been occupying previously unsettled land, afterwards granted to Beverley, which in the interim made Lewis a "squatter" after Beverley took possession.) Much of this land was located on the Greenbrier river, a name given to the stream by Col. Lewis. John Lewis, along with his son Thomas, were of the first magistrates of Augusta County, Virginia at the formation of the county in 1738. In 1751, John Lewis and his son Andrew would survey the Greenbrier tract.

In 1900 Joseph L. Crowder, a Staunton, Virginia citizen, realised that the grave of John Lewis was in a dilapidated state, and the inscription on the monument was even then very hard to read. On 18 November 1900, Mr. Crowder, with great effort, copied this inscription:

Here Lie the Remains of

John Lewis

Who Slew the Irish Lord

Settled Augusta County,

Located the City of Staunton

And furnished five sons to

Fight the Battles of the

American Revolution.

He was the son of

Andrew Lewis and Mary Calhoun

Was born in Donegal County

Ireland 1678 and

Died February 1, 1762 aged

84 years.

He was a brave man

A true patriot and a Friend of

Liberty

Throughout the World.

“Morta litate Relicta Vivit”

Links

• “John Lewis, Founder and Patriarch”. Irvin Frazier (30 May 1962). (document attached)
• http://history.loftinnc.com/Lewis.htm
• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LR34-WF8
• Genealogy of the Lewis Family in America: From the Middle of the Seventeenth Century Down to the Present Time, Volume 1 William Terrell Lewis Courier-journal job printing Company, 1893 - Doyle Collection - 454 pages Chiefly a record of some of the descendants of John Lewis. He was born in Donegal County, Ireland 1678 to Andrew Lewis and Mary Calhoun. He married Margaret Lynn. He died in Virginia 1 Feb 1762. They were the parents of seven children.google books