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David was born about 1695 in Virginia and baptized on 5 May 1695 at St. Peter's in New Kent County, Virginia. His baptismal record shows that he was the son of a John Lewis.[1]
His father, John Lewis, was born in 1640 and died in Hanover County, Virginia, in 1726.[2]
He married twice and had about 11 children.
David Lewis first married about 1717 in Virginia to Elizabeth Anne Terrell.
His oldest child William Terrell Lewis was born about 1718 in Hanover County, Virginia.
About 1750 he moved from Hanover County to Albemarle County, Virginia.
David Lewis married second, about 1753, to Mary McGrath.
His youngest child Miriam married Col. Gabriel Madison.
David died on 21 Oct 1779 in St. Anne's Parish, Albemarle County, Virginia.
A long-standing controversy about his parents has been settled, thanks to the Lewis Surname DNA Project, This David Lewis, Sr. is NOT the biological son of John Lewis of Warner Hall. Although several noted genealogists have said he was, DNA has proven that he does not share their DNA.[3] [4]
Spouses
Many professional genealogists concluded that David Lewis was the son of Councilor John Lewis. DNA indicate David is the son of another John Lewis.
David Lewis served as a Major in the French and Indian War. He was a member of the House of Burgesses, Magistrate of Albemarle County, Virginia and name sake of Lewis Mountain on his plantation just west of the University of Virginia. In 1745 in the organization of Albemarle County, militia David was commissioned as captain at the same time his neighbor Peter Jefferson, father of the President, was commissioned Lt. Col. On Oct. 18, 1756 George Washington wrote David Lewis of the Albemarle militia. Washington was not pleased with David Lewises refusal to supply men. This from Library of Congress--Letters of George Washington.
David was engaged to be married for the fourth time, when he died while cutting down a tree. David was bald and wore a wig and each night on retiring he would hang his wig on the tester over his bed. Being subject to nightmares, he often awoke in the night , dreaming that witches were riding him. On one occasion he awoke, sprang from the bed and made a desperate effort to free himself from the clutches of the witch. His wig fell upon him and he tore it to pieces, exclaiming "Oh, I have caught you at last, have I ? You have been riding me a long time." The next morning he looked at his wig and said "There is fifteen shillings gone". David upon hearing that a cargo of his from England had been lost, started for Norfolk to check on it. That night he stayed with an Innkeeper that was an old acquaintance. A mulatto boy, with a candle led him up to his room. The boy locked the door upon leaving. David called for him to leave the candle, but the boy said "There is a mug under the bed". Upon looking under the bed David found the body of a dead man. Looking through a hole to the outside David saw some men digging a grave. David tousled the bed as if he were in it. Later the landlord entered with an axe, approached the bed and sank the axe into it. David ran out from behind the door and escaped. He returned from Norfolk with a posse and they found that David would have been the seventh victim of his old acquaintance the landlord. David, while living where the city of Charlottesville now stands, was offered 500 acres of land 40 to 50 west of the settlement area, for a pair of buckskins. He declined thinking it would be of no value to him as it would not be settled for some time. David taught school gratuitously for the benefit of the poor. He never inflicted corporal punishment, but if any one violated his rules during the week, he would on Friday tie a bundle of rods to their backs and send them home. He was a Presbyterian.
David and Ann were the 8th great grandparents of President Obama, making descendants of them cousins of Obama.
[2] "The Parish Register of Saint Peter's, New Kent Co., VA 1680-1787", David son of John Lewis bap' the 5 May, 1695. [3] John H. Gwathmey, "Twelve Virginia Counties-Where The Western Migration Began", (1937), Covers David Lewis into Albemarle Co.[Other ancestors mentioned- David,s father John Lewis, Richmond Terrell, and James Ransom. [4] William Terrell Lewis, "Genealogy of the Lewis Family in America" (1893), Gives Lewis and related families
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