Lewis family.

These papers are of the Lewis, Battle, Bryan, and Bradley families of Edgecombe, Orange, and Wake counties, N.C. Note that it is often difficult to identify individuals because of the repetition of given names in succeeding generations and among contemporaries in different Lewis lines. There are, for example, at least four Exum Lewises and the same number of Richard Henry Lewises represented in this collection.

Exum Lewis (d. circa 1839), son of Col. Exum Lewis (d. 1796) of the Edgecombe militia, was postmaster and county court justice for Edgecombe County, N.C. He married Ann Harrison (fl. 1804-1819), with whom he had eight children, including John Wesley (1804-1842), Exum (fl. 1839-1875), Richard H. (1806-1857), Kenelm Harrison (1816-1866), William Figures (1819-1910), and Emma (fl. 1836-1895), later Emma Speight. Two other daughters, Mary, wife of Thomas Hunter of Halifax County, N.C., and Elizabeth (fl. 1839-1882), wife of Col. Spier Whitaker, are rarely mentioned in the collection. Exum's brother Figures (fl. 1796-1808) and his nephew Robert (fl. 1808-1813) also appear in the collection.

John Wesley Lewis (1804-1842), a physician, married Catherine Ann Battle (1809-1879), daughter of Joel and Mary Battle, around 1829. After John's death in 1842, Catherine moved the family to Chapel Hill, N.C., where she operated a boarding house. Their children included physician Joel Battle Lewis (1830-1870); physician and teacher, Richard Henry Lewis (1832-1917); civil engineer and Confederate veteran William Gaston Lewis (1835-1901); Exum Lewis (1837-1888); Christopher Columbus Lum Lewis (1840-1914); and Anna Harrison Lewis (1841-1920).

Exum Lewis (fl. 1835-1875), a physician, married Jane Cotton. Their daughter, Clio Cotton Lewis, married her cousin, John Francis Speight, Jr. (1841-1885).

Richard Henry Lewis (1806-1857), a planter, first married Mary E. Foreman (fl. 1833). Their children included the Alabama planter and Confederate veteran Ivey Foreman Lewis (1833-1884) and Mary Foreman Lewis (fl. 1850-1863), wife of Confederate General W. J. Hardee (1815-1873) (see Lewis Plantation Papers, #2528). Lewis next married Martha Elizabeth Hoskins Foreman, widow of John Foreman, Lewis's first wife's brother. Their son, Richard Henry Lewis (1850-1926), a physician, first married Cornelia Viola Battle (fl. 1877-1886) with whom he had four children. His second wife was Mary Long Gordon of Charlottesville, Va. Their only daughter was newswoman and feminist Nell (Cornelia) Battle Lewis (1893-1956).

Kenelm Harrison Lewis (1816-1866), a planter in Edgecombe County, N.C., married Elizabeth Heritage Bryan (fl. 1832-1858). They had at least two children, John Bryan Lewis (fl. 1858-1899) and Anna Lewis. Kenelm's father-in-law, John Heritage Bryan (1798-1870), was a prominent Whig congressman and Episcopal layman of New Bern and Raleigh, N.C. He and his wife, Mary Williams Shepard (1801-1881), had fourteen children, including Francis Theodore Bryan (b. 1823), Confederate Captain George Pettigrew Bryan (1841-1864), Frederick Richard Bryan (1846-1863), Mary Shepard (Bryan) Speight (1824-1894), and Elizabeth ( Bettie ) Heritage Bryan (b. 1832).

Richard Henry Lewis (1832-1917) of Kinston, N.C., married Eleanor Mildred Betts (1844-1914) in 1863. Among their children was Elisha Betts Lewis (1867-1935), who married Dora McDaniel (1869-1919) in 1890. Elisha and Dora Lewis had five sons and one daughter, among whom was investment banker McDaniel Lewis (1894-1978), active both socially and politically in Greensboro, N.C. Lewis was a 1916 graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and worked as an English teacher before being commissioned into the United States Army at the end of World War I. He eventually served two years. In 1917 he married Lynnwood Adams Cook (1896-1964) of Danville, Va.; their children were Margaret Betts Lewis (b. 1920) and Mary Lynn Lewis (b. 1926). Margaret married Hugh Beard (b. 1919), and had two sons. Mary Lynn married Marshall Johnson (1923-1977) in 1947 and had one son and two daughters. After Johnson's divorce, Mary Lynn married Frederic Beil (1923-1987) in 1980. After Beil's death, Mary Lynn once again remarried, this time to Capt. Walter S. Delany Jr, USN (Ret.).

Planter William Figures Lewis (1819-1910) lived at the Mount Prospect Plantation in Edgecombe County. He married Annie Barlow Foxhall in 1872. Emma Lewis (fl. 1836-1895) married John Francis Speight (fl. 1804-1860), pastor and president of the North Carolina Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church in 1840 (see John Francis Speight Papers, #3914).

Stephan Bradley (fl. 1814-1842) lived at Mount Prospect in the early 19th century. He and his Tennessee relations were apparently farmers. The relationship of the Bradleys with the other families mentioned above is unclear.