> Subject: Mary Lewis > Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2003 09:02:29 -0600 > From: "John A. Foster" <n4la@cafes.net> > To: "RIWASHIN-D@rootsweb.com" <RIWASHIN-D@rootsweb.com>, > john Foster <n4la@cafes.net> > LDS states that my ggg-grandfather Ambrose Foster married Mary Lewis and > that she was born in Westerly, Washington county, RI. It gives her birth > date as ca1720. They lived in the area of present Lincoln county, NC > before the Revolution and 96th district of SC after the war. Can anyone > give me info on her siblings and ancestors? Thank you for reading this. > John A. Foster > Petersburg, TN John, You are on slippery ground with this one. You need a better source than LDS. Do you mean the IGI, the Ancestral File, microfilm of some documents at the Family History Library or what? If the IGI or AF, then you need to look behind these to see what source the compilers were using. The AF in particular contains many errors. Now here is the problem with Mary Lewis in RI in the early 1700s. All the known ones are pretty well accounted for. The earliest known Lewis immigrant in RI is John Lewis who appears in Misquamicut (Westerly) in 1661. He had 8 known children - no Mary. John-2 had a dau Mary, b 1689. She m Richard Dake/Deake. David-2 had a dau Mary, probably m 1731 Joseph Lewis. (Records show that Joseph m Mary Lewis and the naming of Joseph and Mary's children suggest that it was Mary the dau of David.) Daniel-2 had a dau Mary, m John Langworthy. I don't have the list of Jonathan-2 or Samuel-2's children here at the office. But I don't believe they had any descendants named Mary born in the early 1700s because I also have a stray Mary that I have tried to identify. That brings us to generation 3. Joseph-3 (John-2) had children born between 1707 and ca 1730. He had a dau Mary, birthdate unknown. Myself and others have tentatively identified this Mary as being b ca 1710-1715 and as the bride of Nathaniel Lewis on 13 Nov 1729. Why the ca 1710-1715 estimated birthyear? We are trying to fit her birth between the births of the children with known birthdays and have her old enough to marry Nathaniel in 1729. Why do we think she married Nathaniel? Westerly and Charlestown records say that Nathaniel m Mary Lewis. There is no other known Mary Lewis around that could have married Nathaniel. Besides Mary Joseph-3 also had a son Amos. Nathaniel and Mary (Lewis) Lewis named their first son, Amos. Now you come along and throw in another Mary Lewis b ca 1720 into this confusing mixmaster. Our evidence for identifying Mary the spouse of Nathaniel is weak enough as it is without having to contend with another Mary Lewis with a birth within a time frame that could fit Joseph-3's daughter Mary. Continuing with other gen-3 Marys. John-3 (John-2) had a dau Mary, b 1723/4. She m William Hern. Nathaniel-3 (Israel-2) and Mary (Lewis) Lewis had a dau Mary b 1735. James-3 (James-2) had a dau Mary who m John Ladd. Her birth probably occurred ca 1715-1730. John-3 (James-2) had a dau Mercy. I have a hard time distinguishing between Mary and Mercy when I read the old records. Mercy was b 1726; m William Scrivens. There may be other gen-3 Marys that I don't show here in the stuff I have at the office, who would have been born after 1715 and be too young to have married Nathaniel in 1729. Your first step needs to be documenting the source of the information you have on your Mary Lewis. Migration out of Rhode Island to the Carolinas is not a typical 18th century migration path. Augustus Johnston left RI in disgrace and got an appointment from the King in NC in the 1760s. That was after he was hanged in effigy in Newport. My ancestor, Augustus Johnson Lewis (b 1759) was named for him before Augustus Johnston ran afoul of popular opinion. But Augustus Johnston would be the exception that sorta proves the rule. The big wave of migration out of RI did not begin until after the revolution and that was to the west, i.e. New York, some to Vermont, etc. There was some migration of Tories, of course, to Canada and the Maritimes. If your Mary Lewis did come from Rhode Island to NC, then I will stick my neck out and say that her parents and siblings are unidentifiable. That also gives us one more Mary than can be accounted for in RI records. We also have additional issues with respect to which Mary Lewis Joseph-3 and Nathaniel-3 married. Have you been able to locate Ambrose Foster in the RI records? Bill Wright