RANCIS LEWIS was born in Wales, in the town of Landaff, in the year 1713. His father was an Episcopal clergyman, his mother was a clergyman's daughter, and Francis was their only child. He was left an orphan when only about five

years old, and was taken under the care and protection of a maiden aunt, who watched over him with the appa

rent solicitude of a mother. He received a portion of his education in Scotland with another relative, and became proficient not only in his native tongue (the ancient Briton) but in the Gaelic language, then mostly used in Scotland. His uncle, Dean of St. Paul's, in London, afterward sent him to Westminster, where he obtained a good education.

After leaving school he served an apprenticeship with a London merchant. At the age of twenty-one he became the possessor of some money, which he invested in merchandise and sailed for New York, in which city he formed a business partnership. Leaving a portion of his goods with his associate, he proceeded to Philadelphia with the balance, where he resided for two years. He then returned to New York, and made that his place of business and abode. He married the sister of Mr. Annesly, his partner, by whom he had seven children.

Mr. Lewis' business increased, and his commercial pursuits kept him much of his time in Europe until the opening of the "French and Indian War," in which he was an active partisan. He was the aid of Colonel Mercer, at Oswego, when that Fort was captured by Montcalm in August, 1757. Mercer was slain, and Lewis was carried, with other prisoners, to Canada.* Thence he was sent to France, and was finally exchanged. At the close of the war, five thousand acres of land were given him by the British government as a compensation for his services.

Mr. Lewis was distinguished during the administration of Mr. Pitt, for his republican views, and he was elected one of the delegates for New York in the Colonial Congress of 1765. When the Stamp Act became a law, and non-importation agreements nearly ruined commerce, he

* Fourteen hundred men were made prisoners; and thirty-four pieces of cannon, a large quantity of ammunition and stores, and several vessels in the harbor, fell into the hands of the French. The Fort was demolished, and was never rebuilt.

retired from business to his country residence on Long Island.

In 1775 he was elected a delegate to the General Congress, by the convention of deputies from several counties of New York.* He was also elected a delegate for 1776, by the Provincial Assembly, and he became one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, in August of that year. He was a member of Congress until 1778, and was always an active committee man in that body.

Mr. Lewis was a shining mark for the resentment of the British and tories, and while the former possessed Long Island, they not only destroyed his property, but had the brutality to confine his wife in a close prison for several months, without a bed or a change of raiment, whereby her constitution was ruined, and she died two years afterward.

Having attained to the ripe age of nearly ninety years, and honored by the universal reverence and esteem of his countrymen, Mr. Lewis departed this life on the thirtieth of December, 1803.

* See Life of Philip Livingston.

The party names of Whig and Tory were first used in New York, in 1774, and rapidly spread throughout the Colonies. The name of Tory was applied to the American royalists, and the name of Whig was assumed by the patriots. The origin of these names, (which were copied from the English) is obscure. According to Bishop Burnett, the term whig has the following derivation: The people of the southwestern parts of Scotland, not raising sufficient grain to last them through the winter, generally went to Leith to purchase the superabundance of the North. From the word Whiggam, which they used in driving their horses, they were called Whiggamores, and, abbreviated, Whigs. On one of these occasions, news having reached Leith of the defeat of Duke Hamilton, the ministers invited the Whiggamores to march against Edinburgh, and they went at their head, preaching and praying all the way. The Marquis of Argyle, with a force, opposed and dispersed them. This was called the "Whiggamore inroad," and ever after that, all that opposed the Court, came in contempt to be called Whigs. The English adopted the name. The origin of the word Tory is not clear. It was first used in Ireland in the time of Charles II. Sir Richard Phillips defines the two parties thus: "Those are Whigs who would curb the power of the Crown; those are Tories who would curb the power of the people."

Lewis Morns

EWIS MORRIS was born at Morrisania, Westchester county, New York, in the year 1726. Being the eldest son, he inherited his father's manorial estate, which placed him in affluent

*

circumstances. At the age of sixeen years he entered Yale College, and under the presidency of the excellent Rev. Mr. Clapp, he received his

* At that time, the English primogeniture law prevailed in America, and even after the Revolution, Virginia and some other States retained it.

education. He graduated with the usual honors at twenty, and returned to the supervision of his large estate.

Mr. Morris was a handsome man; and his personal appearance, connected with a strong intellect and great wealth, made him popular throughout the Colony. When Great Britain oppressed her children here, he hardly felt the unkind hand, yet his sympathy for others was aroused, and he was among the first to risk ease, reputation and fortune, by coalescing with the patriots of Massachusetts and Virginia. His clear perception saw the end from the beginning, and those delusive hopes which the repeal of obnoxious acts held forth, had no power over Lewis Morris. Neither could they influence his patriotism, for he was a stranger to a vacillating, temporizing spirit. He refused office under the Colonial government, for his domestic ease and comfort were paramount to the ephemeral enjoyments of place. Hence, when he forsook his quiet hearth, and engaged in the party strife of the Revolution, hazarding fortune and friends, no sinister motive could be alleged for his actions, and all regarded him as a patriot without selfish alloy. He looked upon war with the mother-country as inevitable, and so boldly expressed his opinion upon these subjects, that the still rather lukewarm Colony of New York did not think proper to send him as a delegate to the General Congress of 1774.* But the feelings of the people changed, and in April, 1775, Mr. Lewis was elected a member of the second Congress that met in May following.

During the summer of 1775, Mr. Morris was sent on a mission of pacification to the Indians on the western fron

* New York was so peculiarly exposed to the attacks of the British fleet under Lord Howe, then hovering upon our coast, and so forewarned by the miseries of Boston, and the destruction of Falmouth, that toryism, or loyalty to the crown, found ample nutriment among the people of the city. It was in the city of New York that the names of whig and tory were first applied to the distinctive po litical parties.