The Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution

by L. Carroll Judson

Francis was an only child and lost both his parents when only fifteen. A maternal aunt, named Llawelling, became his guardian. She had him early instructed in the Cymraeg language which he never lost. He was subsequently sent to a relative in Scotland where he was taught the original Celtic language. From there he entered the Westminster school at London and became a good classical scholar. He then entered a counting house and became thoroughly acquainted with the entire routine of commercial transactions which prepared him to enter into business understandingly and with safety.

When arrived at his majority he inherited a small fortune which he laid out in merchandize and embarked for New York where he arrived in the spring of 1735. He found his stock too large for that city—entered into partnership with Edward Annesley, leaving with him a part of his goods, proceeding with the balance to Philadelphia. At the end of two years he settled permanently in New York and married Elizabeth Annesley, sister of his partner in trade. To these ancestors may be traced the numerous and respectable families of the same name now residing in and about New York.

Commercial transactions frequently called Mr. Lewis to the principal ports of Europe and to the Shetland and Orkney Islands. He was twice shipwrecked on the coast of Ireland. His great industry, spotless integrity and skill in business, gave him a high position in commercial circles, showing clearly the great advantage derived from a thorough apprenticeship in business before a young man sets up for himself.

At the commencement of the French war he was the agent for supplying the British army with clothing. At the sanguinary attack and reduction of Oswego by the French troops under Gen. Dieskau, Mr. Lewis was standing by the side of Col. Mersey when he was killed. He was taken prisoner and held a long time by the Indians enduring the severest sufferings. As a small compensation the British government granted him five hundred acres of land.

Mr. Lewis was among the early and determined opposers to the unjust pretensions of the British ministers. He was a distinguished and active member of the Colonial Congress that assembled in New York in the autumn of 1765 to devise and mature measures to effectuate a redress of injuries. A petition was prepared to the King and House of Commons and a memorial to the House of Lords. The language was respectful but every line breathed a firm determination no longer to yield to injury and insult. The chrysalis of the Revolution was then and there formed. The eruptions of the volcano occasionally subsided but as the lava of insubordination would again burst out the crater was enlarged and the volume increased until the whole country became inundated by the terrific flood of war, red with the blood of thousands.

In 1771 Mr. Lewis visited England and became familiar with the feelings and designs of the British ministry. From that time he was fully convinced that the infant Colonies in America could never enjoy their inalienable rights until they severed the parental ties that bound them to the mother country. On all proper occasions he communicated his views to the friends of freedom and did much to awaken his fellow citizens to a just sense of impending dangers.

When it was determined to convene the Continental Congress Mr. Lewis was unanimously elected a member by the delegates convened for that purpose on the 22d day of April 1775. He immediately repaired to the Keystone city and entered upon the important duties assigned him. The following year he was continued in Congress and recorded his name upon the chart of Independence. His great experience in commercial and general business united with a clear head, a patriotic heart, a matured and reflecting mind richly stored with intelligence—rendered him a useful and influential member. As an active and judicious man on business committees he stood pre-eminent. As a warm and zealous advocate of his country's rights he had no rival.

He was continued a member of Congress to April 1779 when he obtained leave of absence. He had suffered much in loss of property which was wantonly destroyed by the British troops.

Time or angel's tears can never blot out the damning stigma that rests upon the escutcheon of Great Britain for personal abuse and the wanton destruction of private property during the Revolutionary War. Talk of savage barbarity. He is a Pagan and knows none but his own mode of warfare. England has professed to be the conservatory of Christianity for centuries. Compared with the brutality of her armies in America, looking at her in the light of even a civilized nation, savage barbarity is thrown in the distance so far that it could not be seen through a microscope of a million power.

Not content with destroying the property of Mr. Lewis, the British seized his unprotected wife and placed her in close confinement without a bed—a change of clothes—almost without food and exposed to the cowardly and gross insults of wretches who were degraded so far below the wild man of the wilderness, that could an Archimedian lever of common decency have been applied to them with Heaven for a fulcrum and Gabriel to man it, they could not have been raised, in a thousand years, to the grade of common courtesy. No true American can trace the cruelties of the British troops during the times that verily tried men and women's souls, without having his blood rush back upon his aching heart—his indignation roused to a boiling heat.