Robert Lewis of "Belvoir" (1702 - 1765) & Jane Meriwether
Robert Lewis was the third son of Col. John Lewis and Elizabeth Warner. He was born at Warner Hall in Gloucester County, the family home of his mother. He married Jane Meriwether (1705-1745/55), the daughter of Nicholas Meriwether and Elizabeth Crawford. They had eleven children. Robert Lewis had land in Gloucester but he deeded that to his eldest son, John Lewis of “Halifax” and opted, along with his father-in-law, Nicholas Meriwether, to push out to unoccupied lands in the Piedmont area of Virginia. “Both took out grants for themselves of thousands of acres, being good judges of fertile, well watered selections.” (Anderson, p. 62) In 1736, he obtained a grant for 4,000 acres on the Hardware River, and in 1740, he took a grant for 6,500 acres on Ivy Creek. Along with other grants, he accumulated a total of 21,660 acres, enabling him to bequeath land to all of his children. He also held an interest in 100,000 acres in Greenbrier County (now West Virginia). He built his home, “Belvoir,” in the part of Louisa County that joined Albemarle County in 1761. He served in the House of Burgesses 1744-1746 and was County Lieutenant for Louisa County. Of their eleven children, two played key roles in Lucy Meriwether Lewis Marks’ life:
- William Lewis of “Locust Hill” was Lucy’s first husband.
- Nicholas Lewis, who inherited “The Farm” from his grandfather Nicholas Meriwether, married Lucy’s first cousin, Mary Walker, daughter of Dr. Thomas Walker and Lucy’s aunt, Mildred Thornton
Of the remaining nine children, six of them married other Lewises.
After his wife’s death, Robert Lewis married Elizabeth Thornton, Lucy’s mother, in 1761.
Patricia Zontine, April 2009
