Thomas Lewis (Virginia)

Thomas Lewis (April 27, 1718 – January 31, 1790) was an Irish-American pioneer, lawyer, and surveyor from early Virginia. He made major contributions to the settlement of western Virginia.

Early life

Lewis was born to John (1678-1762) and Margaret Lynn Lewis (1693-1773) in County Donegal, Ireland. His father came to Philadelphia in 1728, then brought his family including Thomas and his brothers Andrew and William over in 1730. The Lewis family moved west, following the Shenandoah River south into Virginia and finally settling near the headwaters of the south fork in what was then Spotsylvania County in the summer of 1732. John established the family farm, building a stone house for defense against the Indians.

In 1736 William Beverley, a wealthy planter and merchant from Essex County, Virginia was granted over 118,000 acres (478 km²) by the Crown in what would become Augusta County, Virginia. This made John Lewis a squatter on Beverley's grant. Lewis corrected this in 1739 by purchasing 2,000 acres (8 km²) from Beverley, along Lewis Creek, about a mile (2 km) east of what is now Staunton, Virginia. He named his home Bellefont.

Thomas was an ardent student as a young man, partly as a result of being very nearsighted. He learned surveying and later read law as well. As early as 1739 he began acquiring land grants of his own to the south and west of Beverley's Manor in what is today Rockingham and Bath Counties.

Career

The Virginia burgesses had authorized Augusta County in 1738, but it was seven years before there was enough population to justify organizing the county. Thomas became one of the first County Judges (Comissioners) when the county was organized in 1745. Shortly afterward he undertook the first of several surveying trips. In 1746 Lewis and Peter Jefferson surveyed part of the boundaries of Lord Fairfax's 15,000,000 acre (61,000 km²) land grant. Lewis kept a detailed journal of these trips, which still provides a view of much of Virginia before its development. In 1746 he laid out the first town plat of Staunton for William Beverley.

Thomas married Jane Stroher from Stafford County on January 26, 1749. Soon after they started their own family and moved south to what would later become Rockngham County. The couple built a plantation they called Lynwood near Dayton, Virginia. They also raised thirteen children, one of whom (Thomas Lewis, Jr.) would serve in the U.S. Congress.

Lewis had held a number of local offices, and was Surveyor of Augusta county for many years. His father had served in the House of Burgesses. But the needs of a large and growing family and building his farm kept him from a larger role for many years. He was elected to the House of Burgesses in 1765 to represent Augusta County.

In the early days of the American Revolution, a convention of Virginia counties replaced the Burgesses. Thomas attended in 1775 as a delegate for Augusta County. His brother Andrew was also there as a delegate for Botetourt County. When a new state government was created in 1776, Thomas was elected to the state's House of Delegates.

In 1778 Lewis journeyed to Pittsburgh with a group that negotiated a treaty with the Delaware Indians to gain their neutrality for the rest of the war. In 1779 he was one of the commissioners appointed to negotiate a dispute with Pennsylvania over each state's western borders. In 1788 he was a delegate for Rockingham County (which had been created from part of southern Augusta County in 1777) to the Virginia convention that ratified the U.S. Constitution.

By the time Lewis died in 1790 he was one of the largest property owners in the county. He died at Lynwood and is buried with Jane in the family burial ground there.