Edmund Lewis, of Lynn, Massachusetts, and Some of His
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GIVEN BY EDMUND LEWIS OF LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS AND SOME OF HIS DESCENDANTS By GEORGE HARLAN LEWIS of Los Angeles, California . • [One hundred and twenty-five copies reprinted from the HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF THE ESSEX INSTITUTE, Volumes XLIII and XLIV.] ESSEX INSTITUTE SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS 1908 -#<?, 6" If 'I /? 3,K)I • • • « vr . « ' Yvfe • • i % ' * '": ' : V PREFACE. The only excuse for the following records is the desire that they might be of use to others, and that the labor of gathering them be not wasted by no use being made of them. I collected them in the search I made for my ancestry. In a few years many who gave me information will have passed over. There are errors I have no doubt. In some cases family and town records did not agree. Many people live and die who do not know when and where they were born, cannot tell the names of their grand- parents or the maiden name of their mother or grand- mothers. Few families think it of sufficient importance to keep a correct record made at the time events tran- spire, but trust to memory. In preparing this work large quantities of land and probate court records were copied, and many items of in- terest that might have been printed in a subscription work are here omitted. I take pleasure in acknowledging the great assistance I received from Jacob Meek Lewis (574) and Mrs. Salome A. (Ward) Lewis (978) was particularly helpful by her interest and knowledge of family history, without whose aid much would not appear here. I have received many inquiries as to my connection with this family. As my name does not appear elsewhere, I will state that I descend from William Lewis (1), men- tioned on pages 1 and 3 ; John Lewis (2) and wife Han- nah, of Lancaster and Dorchester, Mass. ; John Lewis (3) of Dorchester, and Ann (Whiting) Eaton, daughter of Nathaniel and Hannah (D wight) Whiting of Dedham, Mass. ; Jonathan Lewis (4) of Dedham and Abigail ; li PREFACE. (Clapp) Everett, daughter of Thomas and Hannah ( ) Clapp ; Aaron Lewis (5) of Lyndeboro, N. H., and Sarah White, daughter of Benjamin and Mary ( ) White of Stoughtonham, Mass. ; Amasa Lewis (6) of New Boston, N. H., and Polly Dane, daughter of Daniel and Sarah (Goodhne) Dane of New Boston, N. H. ; George Amasa Lewis (7) and Caroline Antoinette Cutter, daughter of Joshua and Sarah (Munt) Cutter of Cambridge, Mass. George Harlan Lewis (8), born in Maiden, Mass., Feb. 28, 1840 ; married (tirst), in Philadelphia, Pa., July 11, 1867, Frances Maria Whitney, daughter of William James and Mary Ann (Siver) Whitney of Albany, N. Y. She was born in Albany Nov. 5, 1845, and died in Brooklyn, N. Y., June 2, 1900, leaving three children. Married (second), in Brooklyn, N. Y., July 13, 1901, Augusta Wilkes Banta, daughter of William and Nancy Eliza (Thorpe-Mills) Banta of New York City. She was born in New York City Oct. 7, 1848, and died in Los Angeles, Calif., Dec. 22, 1908. Children now living: Harry Lin- coln?, born Jan. 17, 1869, in Chicago, 111. ; Edwin Whit- 1 ney ^, born Oct. 2, in Chicago, 9 1870, 111.; George Arthur , born Jan. 31, 1880, in Hackensack, N. J. GEORGE HARLAN LEWIS. ; EDMUND LEWIS OF LYNN, AND SOME OF HIS DESCENDANTS. BY GEORGE HARLAN LEWIS OF LOS ANGELES, CAL. Edmund Lewis, who came to this country and first set- tled in Watertown, is said to have come from Lynn Regis (King's Lynn), England, but there is no record of him or any of his family on the church registers there. Alonzo Lewis, in his history of Lynn (second edition), states that he was a brother of William Lewis, who was at Roxbury in 1630, and was a founder of Lancaster, Mass., in 1653, who descended from a good Welsh family, with a pedigree running back centuries. (Some Welsh pedigrees run back to Noah.) Where Lewis obtained his information is not at my command. I have searched the records of this colony and visited England and Wales, used the libra- ry of the British Museum, and consulted the records of Somerset House and Fetter Lane, London, without suc- cess. Alonzo Lewis has his pedigree upon his monument in the Western Burying Ground, Lynn, running from Wil- liam, through Isaac, his son, who died childless. In point of fact, Alonzo Lewis was descended from Isaac, son of John, of Charlestown and Maiden. If Alonzo Lewis had stated his Welsh pedigree, giving the name of the Welsh ancestor, or the place from which he emigrated, it might have been traced. There is no authoritative connection of any of the Lewis immigrants to New England, during the 17th century, with any Welsh or English family. Without knowing his English home, it is impossible to trace a Welshman. It was not until the middle of the 16th century that the prominent families of Wales begun to adopt the surname as used by the English. They then took the name of the father, and William ap Lewis became William Lewis — 2 EDMUND LEWIS OP LYNN, Lewis ap Edward became Lewis Edwards; Thomas ap Richard became Thomas Prichard or Richards ; John ap Robert became John Probert or Roberts ; John ab Owen became John Bowen ; John ap Evan became Bevan or Evans ; John ap Harry became Parry, and so on through the whole list. The name of Lewis was as popular in Wales as Wash- ington and Franklin in this country. It was adopted as the English form for Llewellyn, who was the last ruling prince in Wales, and was killed in 1282, and whose head hung over the entrance to the Tower of London, after hav- ing been paraded through the streets as a warning to others who might rebel. Nearly every Welsh family had a son Lewis, and when the surname was adopted there were many Lewises. But this did not take place universally at any given time, for at the beginning of the 19th century not half the people had surnames, and to-day in some of the northern parts of Wales the old ap or ab is used between father and child. Edmund might have been the first to adopt the surname, and his father may have been Lewis ap John, or some other name, therefore it is impossible to trace the ancestry in Wales without knowing the place of nativity and parents names, and even then it cannot be done with certainty. All coats of arms are without authority for the same reasons. Ion Lewis, son of Alonzo, states in his biograph- ical sketch of his father, that they descended from the family in Glamorgan. I have been to Cardiff and Green- meadow, and inspected the family chart of Henry Lewis, M. P., who is the head of the family at this time, and find no connection. I have also consulted the printed records of the family and find none. The parish registers do not run back earlier than 1725, therefore all recorded connec- tion is impossible. When a member of the family emi- grated from England his record was discontinued, and no entry was made even if the family knew where the indi- vidual had gone. That the Lewises came from a good family cannot be doubted. Thomas Lewis, who was the first, came to Saco AND SOME OF HIS DESCENDANTS. 3 in 1628, and was an educated man of means, or he could not have obtained the grant which he did. Philip Lewis of Greenland (Portsmouth), 1650, was a relative of Tucker, of Cleaves and Tucker. William Lewis of Rox- bury was probably one of the young sons of a numerous family, where the eldest son inherited the estates, and the other sons had to look elsewhere. He was of an adven- turous spirit, and came out when a mere youth, and re- turned to England where he may have interested his brothers in the colony, and possibly Edmund and John were brothers of his, as the similarity of names in the families will be noticed. After William's children were driven out of Lancaster (1675-6) by the Indians, Isaac is found fighting the Indians with John, the son of Edmund, and he received £3. 2. (X from Lynn. (Bodge's Indian Wars, p. 371.) Later he is found in Maiden, Chelsea, and Charlestown, where John's descendants are living. There is no doubt but that Edmund was brought up by the sea. He had a good estate at Watertown, but it was away from the water, and he went to Lynn, where he found an ideal place, and bought forty acres directly upon the seashore. He may have been a sailor, as in his inven- tory appears a " cutlas," a weapon used in battle, at close quarters, on vessels. He may have bought his land of John Wood, as his lands are called " Wood end fields," and that end of the town was called " Wood end." In his will he mentions John and Thomas as having some prop- erty, and is solicitous for the welfare of the five youngest children, of whom only James and Nathaniel are recorded at Watertown, so the others were born in Lynn, and no record made. Whether he had live children younger than John, as Savage thinks, or five younger than Thomas, is uncertain. Of James I find no certain trace. Nathaniel, with his brother Joseph, sailed away to New London, Conn., in 1666. It has been said that Benjamin Lewis of Stratford, Conn., who went from New Haven, Conn., in 1670, as one of the founders of Wallingford, and later sold out to Dr.