Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

Francis Lewis is assured of a special place in American history as a signatory of the American Declaration of Independence, 1776. A facsimile of the signatures of the fifty-six representatives of the colonies who signed the document appears in most American school text-books, but few people here are aware of the local associations of this eighteenth- century emigrant. American sources furnish considerable detail about the life of Francis Lewis after he had emigrated to New York, but details about his parentage recorded many years after his death are less reliable. According to the Dictionary of American Biography, he was born on 21 March, 1713, 'the only child of the Rev. Francis Lewis, rector of Llandaff, Glamorganshire, Wales, and Amy Pettingal of Caernarvon'. Julia Delafield, his great- grand-daughter, who wrote his biography in 1877, mentions that his mother was 'the daughter of the Rev. Dr. Pettingal, also a clergyman of the Established Church and settled at Carnarvon'. Order of birth? I Blanche Susana Richard Thomas Francis Mary Anne m. Henry Herbert (spinster) (Alderman of d. 1722 (Vicar of St. (spinster) m. Morgan d. 1710 d 1717 Npt.) d. 1737 Woolos) d. 1726 d. 1740 Lewis I m. Hester m. Ann 3 surviving John Hanbury Ann Hanbury children (A famous b. 1710 b. 1713 b. 1717 (Bartholomew Pettingal was an Englishman who, as an iron-worker,came with the Hanburys, late 16th century). FRANCIS LEWIS (1713-1802) by G.W.J. LOVERING Thomas Pettingall (Panteg) (mercer, Alderman of Newport 9 children born Francis Lewis 1704-17 1713-1802 1674 m. Priscilla I Francis d. 1726 antiquary d. 1713 D.N.B. 1707-81 Anne Francis Morgan 4 others b. 1748 b. 1750 1754-1844 d. in infancy m. Elizabeth m. Gertrude Ludlow Livingston The Pettingal Lineage m. 1745 Elizabeth Annersley of New York (1715-1779) (Governor of New York, 1904)