Lewis Dewees, youngest son of Garrett Hendricks and Zytian Dewees, was born in Holland, and emigrated to this country with his father and family in 1639. In the Kent county, Delaware, records he spells his name with the final "e," Deweese. He is mentioned as living in Philadelphia in 1713.

n the year 1727 he bought land in Delaware of Joseph Pidgeon, who was the agent of the Philadelphia Land Company. This land consisted of a tract of 300 acres on the north side of Fishing Creek, Mispillion Hundred, and it was bought May 24, 1727. He sold this tract to his son, Cornelius Deweese, on May 3, 1739, for 50 pounds. Lewis Deweese was a weaver by trade. Nothing further is said of him in the Court records, neither is any mention made in family records. He died in 1743, his Will* being proved April 5, 1743. He left four children, who are mentioned in his will: William, Cornelius, Samuel, and Hezekiah....

Lewis Deweese died in Mispillion Hundred, Kent Co., DE in the Spring of 1743, but did not leave a Will* or land partition record naming his children, and no family Bible has ever been found from which to prove the names of his parents. Letters of Administration on his estate were issued to William Deweese, believed to be his eldest son, on 5 April 17435. The birth year of Lewis' eldest son, William, was determined to be in 1707 based on the contents of a written deposition by William dated 18 February 17566. In this record, William states that his age in 1756 was "49 (years) or thereabouts." Insofar as no other Deweese male of comparable age was living in Kent Co. during the mid-1700s7, it was possible to identify Lewis' probable sons and ascertain their approximate birth years from study of the personal property tax lists. In estimation of birth years, we assumed that a male became eligible to pay the tax at age 21, and that on the following year his name would then first appear on the lists. Study of various Kent Co., DE courthouse records enabled us to identify the wives of Lewis' sons, and the contents of a Sussex Co., DE Chancery Court record dated 31 July 1759 told us that Lewis had married Mary Wheeler, daughter of John and Ruth Wheeler. The 1707 birthdate for William, the earliest son to appear on the Kent Co. tax lists, suggests that Lewis married no later than ca. 1706. The children are all believed to have been born in Kent Co., DE, and are enumerated in Genealogical Summary.

RECORDS SHOWING A LINKAGE OF LEWIS DEWEESE TO GERMANTOWN, PA

In a power of attorney dated 26 March 1702, "Herman op den Graeff, late of Germantown in the province of Pennsilvania (sic), weaver, now of Kent County of the territories annexed to the province of Pennsilvania …." requests that his friend John Gibb of Kent Co. sell his lands in Germantown, PA9. The record was witnessed by Lewis "Dewes," believed to have been the Lewis who is subject of this study. Herman op den Graeff had earlier sold 50 acres of land to Gerrit Hendricks de Wees in Germantown on 1 March 169010, shortly after Gerrits's arrival there from Manhattan Island, NY City11.

A second Philadelphia Co. record naming Lewis Deweese is found in the Will of Joseph Pidgeon dated 12 March 171012. Here, Joseph Pidgeon mentions owning "a tract of land in Kent County now in the possession of one Lewis "Dewes," to whom I sold but never got (…. illegible ….), I having his bond for fifty-six pounds, which if he pays …." Lewis did eventually make payment on 24 May 1727 to the estate of one Joseph Pidgeon13. Interestingly, the deed stipulates that this land was located on the north side of Fishing Creek, a branch of Mispillion Creek. This is informative, because in conjunction with a companion record we obtain confirmation that William Deweese was son of Lewis Deweese. The companion record, dated 30 May 174314, states that William Deweese of Kent Co. obtained a warrant to have 200 acres of land surveyed "on the north side of Fishing Creek adjoining land improved by his father" (not named).3755
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(Genealogy.com, LLC. Family Archive #354, Ed. 4, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, Date of Import: Apr 3, 2001, Internal Ref. #1.354.4.26800.10)

Individual: Lewis Dewees
Place: Germantown, PA
Year: 1690

Primary Individual: Dewees, Cornelius

Family Members: Brother Lewis; Brother Willem

Source Code: 714

Source Name:
BOYER, CARL, 3RD, editor. Ship Passenger Lists, New York and New Jersey (1600-1825). Newhall, Calif.: the editor, 1978. 333p. 4th pr. 1986. Reprint. Family Line Publications, Westminster, MD, 1992.

Source Annotation:
Contains passenger listings mentioned in Lancour, A Bibliography of Ship Passenger Lists, 1538-1825 (1963), nos. 72-76, 78B, 79, 81-83, 83 note, 85, 87A, 88, 89, 98(1), 100, 102(1A), 104-106, 107A, 110-111, 111 corr., 112-114. Includes index to ship names, place names, and about 10,000 personal names, with variant surname spellings. Tepper, in nos. 9120, 9135, 9143, 9144, and 9151, has similar lists.

Source Page #: 10[Genealogy.com, LLC. Family Archive #354, Ed. 4, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, Date of Import: Apr 3, 2001, Internal Ref. #1.354.4.26800.11]

Individual: Lewis Dewees
Place: Germantown, PA
Year: 1690

Primary Individual: Dewees, Lewis

Source Code: 1864

Source Name:
ENO, JOEL N. "New York 'Knickerbocker' Families: Origin and Settlement." In The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. 45:4 (Oct. 1914), pp. 387-391.

Source Annotation:
Dutch immigrants to New York in the seventeenth century. No ship mentioned. Also in no. 9135, Tepper, Immigrants to the Middle Colonies, pp. 1-5; and in no. 0714, Boyer, Ship Passenger Lists, New York and New Jersey, pp. 9-14.

Source Page #: 388[Genealogy.com, LLC. Family Archive #354, Ed. 4, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, Date of Import: Apr 3, 2001, Internal Ref. #1.354.4.26800.12]

Individual: Lewis Dewees
Place: New York
Year: 1690

Primary Individual: Dewees, Lewis

Source Code: 9135

Source Name:
TEPPER, MICHAEL, editor. Immigrants to the Middle Colonies: A Consolidation of Ship Passenger Lists and Associated Data from "The New York Genealogical Biographical Record." Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1978. 178p. Repr. 1979.

Source Annotation:
Contains 15 articles taken from The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, 1879-1970. About 5,500 names. Similar lists in Boyer, nos. 0702, 0714, 0717, and 0720.

Source Page #: 21198
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Lewis, with his parents and brothers, Willem and Cornelius and sister Wilhelmina emigrated to New York in the year 1688, and soon after removed to Germantown, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.3739
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This source indicates a Lambert Deweese b. 1675 and a Lewis Deweese b: Abt. 1678 in Amsterdam, Holland; d: Abt. 1743 in Kent County, Delaware.1524
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We have a tradition from some of the older members of the family, long since dead, that there were two brothers and a sister who emigrated to New York in the latter part of the [17]th century.

The sister married a Rittenhouse, and of the brothers, William settled in Pennsylvania and Lewis settled in Delaware. Another account shows that William had a brother Cornelius, who in partnership with William, purchased land in Bebbertown on the Skippack in 1708.

Lewis Dewees was by occupation a weaver, and for several years pursued his avocation in Philadelphia, afterwards buying land in Delaware, where he raised a family of children. He died in 1743 after accumulating considerable property. His descendants are scattered throughout the West and Southwest.3738

*Contradictory statements. Did he or did he not leave a Will?3

[See more about Holland, the Netherlands and Leeuwarden, the place of Lieuwes’ birth (and others within this database) in his brother Willem’s (1678-1745) notes.]