John Lewis

John Lewis (1 February 1678 - 1 February 1762) was a militia officer, magistrate and prominent Virginia landowner. Born in Ireland, he was forced to emigrate after killing his landlord. He settled in Virginia and, together with his nephew James Patton, became wealthy through land grants and sales during expansion of Virginia's westward frontier. His youngest son Andrew Lewis was a well-known general in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. His second oldest son Thomas Lewis was a politician who served in the Virginia House of Delegates. For many years, Lewis engaged in a heated rivalry with his nephew Patton over land grants, judicial power, and the construction of a parish meeting house. He died at his home in Staunton, Virginia at the age of 84.

John Lewis was born on 1 February 1678 in County Donegal, Ireland. His parents were Andrew Lewis and Mary Colquhoun, and his father's family reportedly were French Huguenots who had left France for Ireland.

Lewis was forced to flee Ireland in 1720 after killing his landlord in an altercation over inflated rent. The Lewises leased land in County Donegal from a "proud, profligate and extravagant" man named Sir Mungo Campbell, who tried to coerce his tenants to pay inflated rents. When Lewis protested, Campbell came to his home at night to evict Lewis and his family. He fired a musket loaded with buckshot into the house, wounding Lewis's wife in the hand and killing his disabled brother. Lewis then came out holding a shillelagh, which he used to kill Campbell and his steward. Fearful that Campbell's family would take revenge, Lewis, in disguise, and "about thirty of his faithful tenantry" obtained passage on a ship bound for the Kingdom of Portugal. In 1729 he traveled to Philadelphia. After a brief period in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Lewis rented land in western Augusta County, Virginia where he settled on Lewis Creek just a few miles south of what is now Staunton, Virginia. After an investigation, Lewis was eventually pardoned by Irish authorities and granted land in western Virginia in compensation for the attack on his home.

In 1869 a magazine called The Land We Love published "The Valley Manuscript," purportedly the first part of "The Common-Place Book of me Margaret Lewis, née Lynn, of Loch Lynn, Scotland," which was supposedly the diary of Lewis's wife Margaret Lynn Lewis, in which she provided an eyewitness account of John Lewis's killing of his landlord in Ireland. The diary was considered legitimate at the time and was republished several times subsequently before it was revealed in 1976 to be a hoax, written by "Fanny Fielding," pseudonym of Mary Jane Stith Sturges (1828-1891, née Upshur).

John Lewis married Margaret Lynn (James Patton's maternal aunt) in 1715 in County Donegal. She was born on 3 July 1693 in County Donegal and was the daughter of William Lynn and Margaret Patton. They had eight children:

1. Samuel Lewis, born 1716

2. Thomas Lewis, 1718-1790, Virginia politician

3. Andrew Lewis, 1720-1781, brigadier general during the American Revolutionary War.

4. Alice Lewis, born 1722

5. William Lynn Lewis, 1724-1812

6. Margaret Lynn Lewis, 1726-1797

7. Anne Lewis, born 1728

8. Charles Lewis, born 1735 and killed at the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774.

Lewis's first homestead was located on the Middle River in Augusta County, but by 1732 he had moved to a property known as Belle-fonte (also Bellefont and other spellings) on Lewis Creek. He arrived with the first European settlers on Borden's grant, and was probably one of the first settlers on the Beverley grant. In 1738, Lewis's nephew James Patton arrived at Lewis Creek with his family, including the eight-year-old William Preston, after which Patton returned to England for his final voyages as a merchant sea captain.

Lewis became close friends with William Beverley, his landlord, and in 1738 Beverley hired Lewis as a representative in charge of surveying and selling plots of land from the Beverley Manor. Lewis acquired an official title for his land on Beverley Manor (2,071 acres) on 21 February 1738, and for his land on Borden's tract on 20 February 1739. By 1751, Lewis owned 9,313 acres in Augusta County.

In February 1747 Lewis applied for permission to build a mill, and in March 1747 he applied for an ordinary (tavern) license. The mill was in construction by May 1751, when Lewis went to court to prevent the construction of a second mill in Staunton.

In 1756 "Fort Lewis," a stockade fort, was constructed by Lewis's son Charles to guard the strategic pass of the Shenandoah Mountain. A large stone mansion, now known as Fort Lewis, was later built nearby, probably by Charles Lewis, although some sources say that it was John Lewis's home for at least a short time. The building has undergone substantial renovation over the years, but the original stone section of the ground floor is still visible.

In 1738 Lewis hosted James Anderson, Presbyterian minister from the Synod of Philadelphia, the first minister to deliver a sermon in the upper Shenandoah Valley. The Reverend John Craig arrived in 1740 as permanent Presbyterian minister of the parish.

On 22 April 1738, the Virginia Council appointed Lewis captain over the settlers in Beverly Manor, where Indians had been stealing items and had killed a farmer. The order states:

"Whereas the Inhabitants on Sherrando River by their petition have represented that the Northern Indians frequently passing through their plantations Commit frequent Outrages and have lately killed one of their men, And have prayed for a Supply of Arms & Ammunition for their defense, It is the Opinion of this Board and Accordingly Ordered that His Majesty's Stores there be delivered to John Lewis Gent who is hereby Approved to be a Capt over such of the Inhabitants as live in Beverly Manor, Thirty Muskets & Eight pair of Pistols with a proportionable quantity of Powder & Ball..."

Lewis was, however, ordered not to "offer any Violence to any of the said Indians passing quietly through their plantations nor to any Indians whatsoever unless the said Indians do first Commit Hostilities on the said Inhabitants in which case only they are at liberty to defend themselves and to Act offensively."

John Lewis was appointed colonel of the Augusta County militia on 22 February, 1739.

On 3 November 1741, John Lewis was among the first Justices of the Peace appointed for Augusta County, after its formation in 1738. When Augusta County was incorporated in 1745, Lewis was appointed magistrate by Governor William Gooch on 30 October. The first session of the Augusta County Court convened on 9 December, 1745.

For several years, Lewis engaged in competition with his nephew James Patton over control of the court. Patton was named Chief Magistrate and President of the county court, but his duties as sheriff initially kept him occupied, and Lewis sat on the bench during 13 out of 15 regularly scheduled court days during the first half of 1746. Then on 14 June 1746, Lewis was appointed sheriff for Augusta County, replacing Patton, and from July 1746 to May 1749, Patton took over the court, presiding over forty-five out of fifty-two regularly scheduled court days as well as ten out of eleven additional courts called for individual criminal trials, essentially replacing Lewis entirely as magistrate. Possibly due to his military duties, after June 1749 Patton distanced himself from the court and Lewis presided on twenty-five out of the forty-three court days for the next two years. Lewis served as a member of the Augusta County Court until at least 1752.

By 1737, Lewis and other partners were acquiring grants for large tracts of land outside Beverley Manor, including the Calfpasture River areas. Lewis and Patton received a patent for 10,500 acres along that river in 1743.

In 1745, a grant of 100,000 acres was made to John Lewis and his associates under the Greenbrier Company. Much of this land was located on the Greenbrier River, a name given by John Lewis. Lewis had his sons Andrew and Thomas trained as surveyors in order to maintain control over the surveying process of the Greenbrier Company. In 1751, Lewis and his son Andrew completed surveys of the Greenbrier tract. Thomas eventually received professional certification as a surveyor from the College of William and Mary and was appointed surveyor for Augusta County.

In 1748, Lewis collaborated with his nephew, James Patton, and Dr. Thomas Walker in the formation of the Loyal Land Company of Virginia. A grant was made to the company on July 12, 1748, according to the Virginia Council records: "To John Lewis Esq. & others eight hundred thousand acres in one or more surveys, beginning on the bounds between this colony and North Carolina, and running to the Westward and to the North, so as to include the said Quantity." The company was given four years in which to survey the tract and purchase enough rights so that smaller grants could then be issued. On 14 June 1753, they received an additional four years in which to complete the surveys because of conflicting claims by other settlers.

Patton had decided in 1745 to form his own company, known initially as the Wood's River Company, and later as the New River Company, and entered into direct competition with his uncle. In January 1753, Patton applied for a 100,000 acre grant and Lewis went to court to prevent him from receiving it, stating that Patton's claim included lands previously claimed by the Loyal Land Company.

Although Lewis and Patton collaborated frequently, they eventually became rivals and enemies. The Reverend John Craig wrote: "...a Difference happened between Col. John Lewis & Col. James Patton, both Living in that Congregation, which Continued while they Lived, Which of them Should be highest in Commission & power."

Since August 1748, Lewis had been contracted by the Augusta County parish to construct several public buildings, including a home for the parish minister as well as the parish meeting house, for which Lewis was to be paid a total of £148. Lewis therefore felt that he had final say in the location of the parish meeting house. Patton had risen quickly in prominence since arriving in Virginia, and was appointed magistrate, County Sheriff, Justice of the Peace, collector of duties on furs and skins, escheator, coroner, and Chief Commander of the Augusta County Militia. He was also among the ten elected commissioners of the Tinkling Spring congregation in 1741 and underwrote the cost of the meeting house's construction. In the end, Patton selected the location of the meeting house, and Lewis remained at odds with him afterwards. Craig wrote, "[They] could not agree for several years upon a plan or manner, where to build [the Tinkling Spring Meeting House], which gave me a very great trouble...their disputes ran so high...I could neither bring them to friendship with each other, nor obtain both their friendships at once, ever after. This continued for thirteen or fourteen years, till Colonel Patton was murdered by the Indians."

Lewis completed the other parish buildings and was paid in May 1750. In November 1752, parish leaders declared that Lewis had not in fact completed all the glebe buildings as promised, and required him to contract a builder at his own expense, to complete the remaining buildings.

Lewis wrote his will on 28 November 1761, and died at age 84 on 1 February, 1762. He is buried on what was, at the time, his Bellefonte estate outside Staunton, near the Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant. His grave marker is inscribed with these words:

"Here lies the remains of John Lewis who slew the Irish Lord. Settled Augusta County, located the town of Staunton and furnished five sons to fight the battles of the American Revolution. He was the son of Andrew Lewis and Mary Calhoun and was born in Donegal County, Ireland in 1678 and died Feb'y 1st, 1762, aged 84 years. He was a brave man, a true patriot and a friend of liberty throughout the world. Mortalitate relicta vivit immortalitate inductus. (Latin: "Having left mortality, he lives clad in immortality.")"

An obelisk monument, erected on 31 May 1962 in Gypsy Hill Park in Staunton by the John Lewis Society, honors John Lewis. In 1891, Lewis's great-great-grandson John Lewis Peyton wrote to the city proposing that Lewis's remains and those of his wife be moved to Gypsy Hill Park from Bellefonte estate and reburied under a memorial. The Staunton City Council erected the memorial but the graves were not relocated.

The Shawnee chief Quatawapea adopted the Anglo sobriquet "Colonel John Lewis" in honor of John Lewis.

On 13 March 2001, the Virginia General Assembly passed an act to designate that portion of Interstate Route 81 within the boundaries of Augusta County the "John Lewis Memorial Highway" in honor of John Lewis.