Thomas Lewis (Virginia)

Thomas Lewis (April 27, 1718 – January 31, 1790) was an Irish-American surveyor, lawyer, and a pioneer of early Virginia. He was a signatory to the Fairfax Resolves preceding the American War for Independence, and after the conflict, contributed to the settlement of western Virginia in an area that would one day become part of West Virginia.

He was a founding trustee of Liberty Hall (later Washington and Lee University), when it was made into a college in 1776.

Lewis was born to John (1678–1762) and Margaret Lynn Lewis (1693–1773) in County Donegal, Ireland on April 27, 1718. His father immigrated to Philadelphia in 1728; then brought his family, including Thomas and his brothers Andrew and William, over in 1730. In the summer of 1732 the Lewis family moved to western frontier, following the Shenandoah River south into Virginia and finally settled near the headwaters of the south fork in what was then Spotsylvania County. The family established a farm and built a stone house for defense against the Indians.

Robert Beverley's son, Col. William Beverley, a wealthy planter and merchant from Essex County in Virginia, had been granted, in 1736, more than 118,000 acres (478 km²) by The Crown (in what would become Augusta County). This effectively made the Lewis family squatters on Beverley's new land grant. Lewis corrected this in 1739 by purchasing 2,000 acres (8 km²) along Lewis Creek (about a mile (2 km) east of what is now Staunton, Virginia) from Beverley. He named his new home "Bellefonte".

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