FRANCIS LEWIS.

FRANCIS LEWis was born in the month of March, 1713, at Landaff in the shire of Glamorgan, South Wales, where his father was established as a Protestant Episcopal clergyman. His mother was the daughter of the Rev. Dr. Pettingal, a clergyman of the same profession, in Caernarvonshire, North Wales. He was their only child; but death soon deprived him of his natural guardians, and left him an orphan at the age of four or five years. At this tender stage of life, he was consigned to the care of a maternal maiden aunt, named Llawelling, who resided in Caernarvon. A strong and proud attachment to her country was a peculiar feature in the character of this respectable lady, who appears to have been devoted to every thing connected with the ancient British: hence she took particular pains to render her nephew, in early youth, master of the Cymraeg, or native language of his country; a knowledge of which he retained through the course of his life: he was also sent to Scotland, where he acquired, in the family of a Highland relation, the Gaelic language, which is said to be the oldest and purest dialect of the Celtic.

When young Lewis had arrived at the proper age, he was transferred to the tutelage of a maternal uncle, then Dean of St. Paul's in London, by whom he was placed at Westminster school, where he completed his education and became a good classic scholar. He then entered the counting-room of a merchant in the city of London, where he served a regular clerkship, and acquired a very extensive and judicious knowledge of commerce, which became the occupation of his future life. When he attained the age of twenty-one years, he came into possession of a moderate amount of property, which he converted into merchandize, and embarked with it for the city of New York, where he arrived in the spring of 1735. Finding that his cargo was too extensive for the New York market, he formed a commercial connexion with Mr. Edward Annesley, a

descendant of the ancient Anglesey family, and repaired, with a portion of his merchandize, to Philadelphia, leaving his partner to dispose of the residue in New York.

At the expiration of two years, he returned to New York, where he permanently established his residence and engaged extensively in navigation and foreign trade. At this period he married Elizabeth Annesley, the sister of his partner: the offspring of this connexion was seven children, four of whom died during infancy, and the three younger lived to become the parents of a numerous progeny.

One of his first shipments to Europe consisted of an entire cargo of wheat; and he frequently remarked, that, from its novelty, it was at that time the subject of much conversation. The port of New York being inadequate to the supply of a full freight for the vessel, he was compelled to send her round to Philadelphia to complete her lading: the average price of wheat was three shillings and four pence, currency, per bushel. In the prosecution of his mercantile pursuits, which exhibited peculiar perseverance and enterprise, he traversed a great part of the continent of Europe. He was twice in Russia, and visited all her sea-ports from Petersburg to Archangel: he also visited the Orkney and Shetland islands, and was twice shipwrecked on the coast of Ireland.

During the French war, Mr. Lewis attended the English troops as agent for supplying them with clothing. Being a friend of the commandant of Fort Oswego, he remained with him in the capacity of aid on the investment of the fort, and became a prisoner to the French.

After the surrender of Fort Oswego, in 1756, it is reported that Montcalm barbarously gave permission to the chief warrior of the savages, who composed a part of his forces, to select about thirty of the garrison as his portion of the prisoners. Mr. Lewis was included among the number, and it is handed down by an idle tradition that, in this fearful extremity, his life was preserved by a certain resemblance which existed between the Welsh and the Indian tongues.

From the termination of the Canadian war, to' the commencement of the revolution, Mr. Lewis uniformly co-operated with those early patriots who opposed the gradual encroachments of the British government on the rights of the American people. He was one of the first to enrol his name among the "sons of liberty,"—an association which exhibited the earliest dawn of a determination to resist force by force. When it was attempted to put the stamp act

in operation, he retired from business to his country-seat on Long Island, where he continued to reside until the year 1771. Being then desirous of establishing his eldest son in the mercantile profession, he embarked with him for England, and towards the close of that year returned with a large quantity of dry-goods, and recommenced business under the firm of Francis Lewis and Son. On the commencement of hostilities in 1774-5, he again retired from commercial pursuits.

The patriotism, firmness, integrity, and abilities which had characterized the career of Mr. Lewis for almost half a century, pointed him out to his fellow citizens as a fit representative to the continental congress, and on the twenty-second of April, 1775, he was unanimously elected a delegate, with full power to concert and determine on such measures as should be judged most effectual for the preservation and re-establishment of American rights and privileges, and for the restoration of harmony between Great Britain and the colonies. On the twenty-first of December, 1775, he was continued, by the provincial congress of New York, a delegate from that state for the year 1776, and affixed his signature to the Declaration of Independence with a pride and exultation, only equalled by the ardour with which he supported its adoption. In a convention of the representatives of the state of New York, held at White Plains, on the ninth of July, 1776, the conduct of her congressional delegates was, as has been mentioned, fully approved, and it was unanimously resolved that the reasons assigned by the continental congress for declaring the United Colonies free and independent states, were cogent and conclusive; and that, while they lamented the cruel necessity which had rendered that measure unavoidable, they would, at the risk of their lives and fortunes, unite with the other colonies in supporting it.

At the election held at Kingston, by the representatives of New York, on the thirteenth of May, 1777, Mr. Lewis was not included in the representation to congress, but received the formal thanks of the convention for his long and faithful services rendered to the colony and state of New York. At the first meeting, however, of the legislature, he was again elected a delegate, on the second of October, 1777, and appeared in his place on the fifth of the following December. On the sixteenth of October, 1778, he was, for the fourth and last time, appointed to represent the state in the national legislature. On the twenty-seventh of April, 1779, he obtained leave of absence, which appears to have terminated his career in

congress, after a long, laborious, and energetic display of the patriotism and abilities which had procured him the distinguished honour of a seat in the most illustrious assembly that the world has ever witnessed. In the various duties which devolved on him, he uniformly acted with prudence and precision, both as it regarded the great national questions which were discussed in the house, and the less distinguished but not less necessary business of committees. In his employment in secret services, and particularly in his purchases of clothing for the army, in the importation of arms and ammunition, and in contracting for provisions, he displayed the peculiar qualifications which might be expected from his commercial abilities. As a member of the committee of claims, instituted for the purpose of putting the accounts of the continent in a proper train of liquidation and settlement, his professional knowledge was equally valuable and correct. From the same cause, he was an efficient member, in 1775, of the committee, on the Albany treaty with the Six Nations of Indians, appointed to mature a plan for rcopening the trade with those Indians at Albany and Schenectady, and to devise ways and means for procuring goods proper for that trade. On the eleventh of December, 1775, he was appointed one of a committee to devise some mode of furnishing the colonies with a naval armament, and was a valuable member of the committee of commerce. On the twentieth of September, 1776, he was delegated, together with Mr. Sherman and Mr. Gerry, to repair to head quarters, near New York, to inquire into the state of the army, and to devise the best means of supplying its wants. But it is impossible to enumerate the varied and valuable duties performed by Mr. Lewis during the period of his services in congress. On the seventh of December, 1779, not long after his retirement from that body, he was appointed a commissioner for the board of admiralty, which office he accepted.

At the time of his first election to congress in 1775, Mr. Lewis unfortunately removed his family and effects to his country-seat on Long Island, which was plundered, in the fall of 1776, by the British light-horse, under the command of Colonel Birteh. All his immovable property was wantonly destroyed, as well as his books and papers of every description. But the wrath of the marauders against the rebel representative, who had dared to brave the fury of offended royalty, by inscribing his name on the document which severed the British empire, was not appeased by the ruin in which they involved all his destructible property. The vengeance of party spirit was

basely and inhumanly visited on an unprotected and unoffending female, and the undaunted patriotism of the statesman was revenged in the person of his wife. Mrs. Lewis, with inconceivable brutality, was placed in close confinement, without a bed to lie upon, and without any change of clothes whatever, in which situation she remained during several months. This disgraceful affair was brought before congress on the eighth of November, 1776, and then referred to the board of war: on the third of December following, it was resolved that a "Mrs. Chamier be permitted to go to her husband at New York, and that Mrs. Lewis at Flushing, on Long Island, be required in exchange." It appears, however, that this unfortunate victim was finally exchanged through the influence of General Washington, for Mrs. Barrow, the wife of the British paymaster general, and Mrs. Kempe, the wife of the attorney general of the province. The consequence of her imprisonment was the entire loss of health; and in the course of two years, her life fell a sacrifice to this modern act of Vandalism. In fact, the conduct of the British was, in many respects, inhuman and disgraceful, particularly in the treatment of prisoners at New York. The wanton and oppressive devastation of the country, and the destruction of property; the brutal treatment of those who fell into their power; the savage butchery of others who had submitted and were incapable of resistance; and the lust and brutality of the soldiers in the abuse of women, have all inflicted a stain upon the British character and British arms, which all the glory of her Marlboroughs, her Nelsons, and her Wellingtons, can never efface; and the deep wound which pierced the bosom of America, still rankles and festers from generation to generation. From the report of a committee of congress, in April, 1777, it appears that the whole track of the British army through New Jersey was marked with the most wanton ravages and desolation; and that places of worship, ministers, and religious persons of certain Protestant denominations, were particularly treated with the most rancorous hatred, and at the same time with the greatest contempt. It has been asserted, on as good evidence as the case will admit, that, during the last six years of the war, more than eleven thousand persons died on board the Jersey prison-ship, which was stationed in East river, near New York; and for some time after the war, the bones of many of these victims lay whitening in the sun on the shores of Long Island. Conyngham, the provost marshal at New York, was a fellow who would not, says Graydon, have disgraced the imperial throne of the Cæsars, in the darkest days of