[Sources: Isa Garteray Urquhart Glenn research 1900; Sorley The Lewises of Warner Hall; word on the street]
General Robert Lewis, reputed founder of the Lewis family in America, is a figure so shadowy and indistinct that his very existence has been challenged by some historians. In the "William and Mary Quarterly" for January to April 1901, it is assumed that no such person ever existed and that General Robert was a "traditional myth."
There is ample evidence, however, that General Robert was anything but a myth. Setting sail from Gravesend, England, with his wife Elizabeth, this Welshman (native of Brecon, Wales) set foot in Virginia in 1635, being the first of his name in America so far as records go. It is believed that Robert and his wife lie entombed at Warner Hall. They were parents of two sons, William and John Lewis, the first of whom died without issue, the second of whom married Isabella Warner and in her honor built Warner Hall.
Henry Howell Lewis of Baltimore, who devoted years of his life to unraveling the tangled skein of his family history, states that Robert had two sons, William and John, that William died without issue and that John married Isabella Warner and built the famous hall on the Severn river, in Gloucester county, Virginia. In these assertions he is sustained by Hening's Statutes at Large, 1769, and at other times, with citation to entailed estates. These statutes prove that there was a Robert, that he had two sons, and that the estates in New Kent and Hanover counties, which were settled upon the son William by his father, passed to his remaining brother, John, when William died without issue.
There is a tradition that Robert Lewis was a son of Sir Edward Lewis of a noble line of ancestry, but this lineage is so largely traditionary that it may be passed. Bishop Meade and others speak of Robert as favorably known to English history and as holding a commission in the British Army. According to the same authority, General Robert brought with him to Virginia a grant from the crown of 33,333 1/3 acres of virgin land located in that portion of York now incorporated in Gloucester county.
According to Thomas M. Green of Danville, Kentucky, an eminent genealogical authority, Robert the emigrant died about 1645 and prior to 1650 his widow married a Major Longley or Langley.
With citation to the two sons of Robert, Henry Howell Lewis has this to say, as quoted in "Lewis and Kindred Families":
"Their tombs are there (at Warner Hall). I have seen them. It is to be supposed that their father and mother lie there also, as the cemetery is large and has many tombs and slabs. These are facts from the tombs and church records. What more can we desire?"
It is assumed that Mr. Lewis meant that there were many tombs and slabs upon which, because of age or defacement, the legends or inscriptions were no longer decipherable, and that among them doubtless were the tombs of General Robert and his wife.
John Lewis, son of Robert and the first known John in America, was born about 1640. His wife, Isabella Warner, was a daughter of Augustine Warner and his wife, Mildred Reade, Augustine Warner was a officer in the British Army and the father of Speaker Augustine Warner. These Warners are entombed at Warner Hall.
This first John Lewis and first master of Warner Hall had one child, a second John, called "Councilor John," born 1669. He married his first cousin, Elizabeth Warner, daughter of Isabella Warner's brother Augustine and granddaughter of Colonel George Reade, descendant of Edward Plantagenet, known as Edward III of England. Colonel Reade's wife was Elizabeth Martian (pronounced Marchen), a daughter of Colonel Nicholas Martian.
Colonel Reade's daughter Mildred, who married Captain Augustine Warner, had a daughter, Mildred Warner, who married Lawrence Washington, eldest of two sons (Lawrence and John) born to John Washington and Anne Pope. John Washington and his brother Lawrence, coming to Virginia from England in 1657, were the first of the name known in America.
Lawrence Washington and Mildred Warner had three children, John, Augustine and Mildred, the second of whom (Augustine) became the father of "the father of his country." Augustine married Jane Butler and by her had four children, Butler, Lawrence, Augustine and Jane. His wife died, and on March 6, 1730, he married Mary Bell, a woman of great beauty. By this marriage, Augustine Washington had six children, George (General George and first President of the United States), Betty, Samuel, John Augustine, Charles and Mildred. Betty (sister of General George) married Fielding Lewis, a cousin of Samuel Hardin Lewis, or, rather, a full first-degree cousin of Samuel's mother, which accounts for the Washington relationship (among descendant children), which is a tradition among descendants of the Pike county Lewis pioneer.
The second John Lewis ("Councilor John") and Elizabeth Warner had numerous children, the records of most of whom have been lost. "On the tombstone of Elizabeth Warner Lewis," says Lura Bolton Tandy in "Lewis and Kindred Families," "it is stated that she was the loving mother of 14 children. It is not known how many of these reached maturity or left issue. We have only the history of three sons, John, Charles and Robert (the latter the grandfather of Samuel Hardin Lewis). The names of five daughters have been preserved through the records of Abingdon Parish and Hening's Statutes, but there is no data in regard to any of them excepting Isabella."
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