William Terrell Lewis

Lewis was one of 11 children of William Terrell Lewis Sr. and his wife Sallie Martin of Virginia; Lewis Sr. "kept a tavern on the Staunton Road, about three miles west of Charlottesville, called at first Terrell's and subsequently Lewis's Ordinary."{{Cite book |last=Woods |first=Edgar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XzMTAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22William+Terrell+Lewis%22&pg=PA255 |title=Albemarle County in Virginia: Giving Some Account of what it was by Nature, of what it was Made by Man, and of Some of the Men who Made it |date=1901 |publisher=Michie Company, printers |pages=255 |language=en}} The family moved to North Carolina and he and his brothers, Micajah Lewis, Col. Joel Lewis, and James M. Lewis, all fought with the Continental Army at the Battle of King's Mountain in 1780.{{Cite book |last=Revolution |first=Daughters of the American |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u2UZAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22william+terrell+lewis%22&pg=PA26 |title=Lineage Book of the Charter Members of the Daughters of the American Revolution |date=1892 |publisher=Daughters of the American Revolution |pages=26–27 |language=en}} His brother Micajah Lewis was killed at the Battle of Guilford Court House in 1781. He was sometimes referred to as Maj. Wm. T. Lewis from his army rank.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ImGHLzYgdh8C&dq=%22maj.+wm.+t.+lewis%22&pg=PA229 |title=The Southern Journal of the Medical and Physical Sciences |date=1855 |pages=229 |language=en}} Joel Lewis moved to Nashville as well, and one of his daughters, Sarah Martin Lewis, married first James King of Saltville, Virginia, and second Thomas B. Claiborne.{{Cite web |title=History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers. By Prof. W. W. Clayton |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t47p9rm6f&seq=87&q1=Balch |access-date=2025-05-11 |website=HathiTrust |page=72 |language=en}}

In 1784 he was named as surveyor for the western district of North Carolina land office, in what would shortly become Tennessee. He was appointed at the same time as William Polk and Stockley Donelson, brother of the future Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson.{{Cite book |last=Lewis |first=J. D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fklAgjZap4YC&dq=%22william+terrell+lewis%22&pg=PA185 |title=NC Patriots 1775-1783: Their Own Words, Volume 1 |publisher=JD Lewis |isbn=978-1-4675-4808-3 |pages=185 |language=en}} In 1785 he represented Wilkes County in the North Carolina House of Commons.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/genealogyoflewis00loui/page/80/mode/1up |title=Genealogy of the Lewis family in America, from the middle of the seventeenth century down to the present time |date=1893 |publisher=Louisville, Ky., Pub. by the Courier-journal job printing co. |others=Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center |pages=80–82 |language=en-us}}{{Cite book |last=Wheeler |first=John H. (John Hill) |url=https://archive.org/details/historicalsketch00whee/page/465/mode/1up |title=Historical sketches of North Carolina, from 1584 to 1851 |date=1851 |publisher=Philadelphia : Lippincott, Grambo |others=University of California Libraries |pages=465}}

File:Central Nashville in 1832, Nashville Inn, Davidson County Courthouse, City Hotel.jpg

Sometimes spelled William Terrill Lewis or recorded as Wm. Terry Lewis, he moved to the settlement of Nashville, Tennessee with his father and brothers around 1793. He built one of the first two brick homes in Davidson County, Tennessee.{{Cite news |date=November 25, 1858 |title=Joshua Collins |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-picayune-joshua-collins/163699976/ |access-date=2025-01-23 |work=The Times-Picayune |pages=2}} He was known as land speculator and "kept a hotel for many years. He was very kind and hospitable to strangers, and his house was the stopping-place for all distinguished lawyers and dignitaries on visiting Nashville." This brick building later became Talbot's Tavern under management of Clayton Talbot, and Isham Parker, and in 1825 became the Nashville Inn.{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Mrs. Rutledge |date=April 12, 1936 |title=Public Square Cradle of Early City Activity |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/nashville-banner-public-square-cradle-of/163849263/ |access-date=2025-01-24 |work=Nashville Banner |pages=53}} This was the preferred tavern of Andrew Jackson and thus local Democrats; the Whigs patronized the City Hotel across the courtyard square.{{Cite news |date=November 2, 1912 |title=Incidents in Early History |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/nashville-banner-incidents-in-early-hist/163793803/ |access-date=2025-01-24 |work=Nashville Banner |pages=27}} Lewis was a land speculator during this era, along with John Armstrong, his brother Martin Armstrong, North Carolina Secretary of State James Glasgow, Stockley Donelson, William Blount, and William Terrell.{{Cite journal |last=Jones |first=Thomas B. |date=1968 |title=The Public Lands of Tennessee |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42622983 |journal=Tennessee Historical Quarterly |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=13–36 |jstor=42622983 |issn=0040-3261}} Donelson and Lewis were both charged with fraud or dishonesty at one time or another over the course of their careers in speculation.{{sfnp|Remini|1977|p=136}}

On March 11, 1797, Lewis (unclear if Senior or Junior) sold Andrew Jackson 1,000 acres of land in Madison County, Tennessee for $250.{{Cite news |date=September 7, 1876 |title=Old Hickory's Land Transactions |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-kansas-chief-old-hickorys-land-tran/163847560/ |access-date=2025-01-24 |work=The Kansas Chief |pages=1}} In the year 1800, Lewis, Judge McNairy, and Dr. Henning founded the Federalist Academy school, which unified with the Davidson Academy in short order.{{Cite news |date=December 2, 1884 |title=Nashville Memories: The Log Dwelling Houses and Public Buildings on the Square |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/nashville-banner-nashville-memories-the/154684842/ |access-date=2025-01-24 |work=Nashville Banner |pages=2}}

File:Map of the former territorial limits of the Cherokee "Nation of" Indians ; Map showing the territory originally assigned Cherokee "Nation of" Indians. LOC 99446145.jpg

On February 14, 1804, Lewis, Andrew Jackson, John McNairy, and James Robertson were "subscribers" to a contract between John Gordon and William Colbert (brother of Levi Colbert and George Colbert) to establish a trading standing and ferry at what came to be known as Colbert's Ferry across the Duck River on the 1801 line of treaty with the Chickasaws regarding the Natchez Trace between Nashville and Natchez District.{{Cite journal |last=Leach |first=Douglas Edward |date=1959 |title=John Gordon of Gordon's Ferry |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42621449 |journal=Tennessee Historical Quarterly |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=322–344 |jstor=42621449 |issn=0040-3261}} (Gordon would later be Jackson's personal spymaster throughout the Creek War and during two separate pushes into Spanish-controlled Pensacola, Gordon apparently playing important roles as envoy or scout or advance man in both 1814 and 1819.)

In June 1809, Thomas Claiborne, Wm. P. Anderson, John Gray Blount, Samuel Hogg and Lewis agreed to host a "cocking ring" (cockfighting tournament) in Nashville on Fourth of July weekend.Papers of AJ, p. 217–218 This event was apparently heavily patronized and during which "large sums of money and several horses were exchanged."{{Cite book |last=Brady |first=Cyrus Townsend |url=https://archive.org/details/trueandrewjackso00brad/page/62/mode/2up |title=The true Andrew Jackson |date=1906 |publisher=Philadelphia, London, J.B. Lippincott Company |others=The Library of Congress |pages=61–62}}

File:1804 Map of Nashville published 1880.jpg's house and McNairy's Spring]]

During the 1828 presidential election, Andrew Jackson's political opponents suggested that he may have engaged in treasonous sedition during the Burr conspiracy. One of Jackson's defenses was an index of men who he said had volunteered to join him putting down any insurrection against the federal government. The list of notable militia volunteers furnished by Jackson's campaign committee included Major William T. Lewis and his brother Joel Lewis, as well General James Robertson, Capt. James Hennen (surgeon), General Thomas Overton, Major Howell Tatum, Major Clem. Hall, Captain James Tatum, Colonel Robert Hays, Captain William Richard, Captain Stephen Cantrell, Captain Norbert Edmondson, Major William Walton, Captain William Lytle, Captain Joshua Hadley, Captain John Beck, Captain John Park, Capt. Joseph Coleman, William Tait, Thomas Talbot, George Poyzer, Thomas Dillon, William Whorton, and George Whorton.{{Cite news |date=July 3, 1828 |title=Jackson support |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/maryland-gazette-jackson-support/163845709/ |access-date=2025-01-24 |work=Maryland Gazette |pages=2}}

Lewis' plantation in Davidson County, Tennessee was called Fairfield. According to an old settler, "The most important road leading to and from Nashville at that time, and up to the building of the turnpike road, was the Murfreesboro dirt road, which led from the public square on Market street, out by the old Cumberland College to where Mr. John Trimble now resides, then on, crossing Mill creek at R. C. Poster's mill. The first prominent citizen on this road was Col. Joel Lewis, who had a brother living at Fairfield, William Terrel Lewis...There was no road leading by William B. Lewis' house; a lane, however, extended to the Murfreesboro road, and this was the road to Fairfield."{{Cite news |date=September 18, 1927 |title=Roads and Residents of a Century Gone |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/nashville-banner-roads-and-residents-of/163793253/ |access-date=2025-01-24 |work=Nashville Banner |pages=48}}

Three of his daughters married men who became some of Andrew Jackson's closest advisors: John Eaton, William Berkeley Lewis, and Alfred Balch.{{Cite journal |last=Murphy |first=James Edward |date=1971 |title=Jackson and the Tennessee Opposition |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42623203 |journal=Tennessee Historical Quarterly |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=50–69 |jstor=42623203 |issn=0040-3261}} According to Mrs. M. S. Asher of Atlanta, interviewed in 1905, William Berkeley Lewis, no close relation, came to Nashville and married Lewis' youngest daughter, Margaret Lewis.{{Cite news |date=June 4, 1905 |title=Maj. William B. Lewis, of Fairfield |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-tennessean-maj-william-b-lewis-of/163793500/ |access-date=2025-01-24 |work=The Tennessean |pages=29}} The father objected to the marriage{{Mdash}}his daughter was too young{{Mdash}}but "objections on account of her youth were overruled by an elopement, the marriage taking place at the home of Col. James Jackson, the couple later going to the Hermitage till invited home." Another set of daughters married brothers, Dr. Thomas A. Claiborne and William C. C. Claiborne, governor of Mississippi Territory and later Louisiana.{{Cite web |title=Duelling in old New Orleans |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x001254464&seq=14&q1=Micajah |access-date=2025-01-17 |website=HathiTrust |pages=9–12 |language=en}} Lewis' only son, Micajah Green Lewis, who moved to New Orleans and became an aide to his brother-in-law Governor Clairborne, was killed there in a duel in 1805.

Lewis' son-in-law William B. Lewis wrote Andrew Jackson on February 8, 1813, that "Maj. William T Lewis died on thursday morning last about 4 O'clock."{{Cite journal |last=Andrew |first=Jackson |date=1984 |title=The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume II, 1804–1813 |url=https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_jackson/5/ |journal=TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange |language=en |pages=95, 363 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250122184503/https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_jackson/5/ |archive-date=2025-01-22}} Jackson replied from his Natchez expedition, "I regret the death of Major Lewis{{mdash}}I fear his business is verry much unsettled{{mdash}}and that his family may be injured thereby{{mdash}}I shall be happy to hear from you often." The executors of Lewis' estate were Andrew Jackson, Thomas Crutcher, and Alfred Balch.{{Cite news |date=November 17, 1834 |title=State of Tennessee, Davidson |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/national-banner-and-daily-advertiser-sta/163835567/ |access-date=2025-01-24 |work=National Banner and Daily Advertiser |pages=1}} His widow Mary Hipkins Lewis survived until 1824. The Fairfield plantation eventually came into the possession of his Maj. W. B. Lewis.

Lewis was married to "Mary Hipkins, who was said to be a dowerless beauty and half-sister to Miriam Eastham, the wife of Colonel Joel Lewis. These two sisters were said to be related to Lord Fairfax, of Virginia."

• Sarah T. Lewis, born 1780; married Dr. Thos. A. Claiborne; Andrew Jackson became guardian to their children after they both died
• Eliza Lewis, born 1782; married Governor Wm. C. C. Claiborne; she and her baby died of yellow fever in New Orleans
• Micajah Green Lewis, killed in a duel in Louisiana in 1805
• Mary Lewis, born 1786; married Alfred Balch, died shortly thereafter
• Myra Lewis, born 1788; married Major John H. Eaton, died shortly thereafter; Eaton's second wife was Margaret "Peggy" O'Neill Timberlake, of Petticoat Affair notoriety{{sfnp|Harlan|1948|p=9}}
• Charlotte Lewis, born 1792; married Major Isaac L. Baker "of New Orleans, and died soon afterwards"{{Cite book |last=Clayton |first=W. Woodford |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ipEAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Alfred+Balch%22+%22Creek+War%22&pg=PA73 |title=History of Davidson County, Tennessee |date=1880 |publisher=J. W. Lewis & Company |isbn=978-0-7222-4833-1 |language=en}}
• Margaret, born 1793; married Major Wm. B. Lewis; they had one daughter before Margaret died in 1815;{{sfnp|Harlan|1948|p=9}} Lewis' second wife was Adelaide Stokes Chambers, a daughter of Montfort Stokes of North Carolina.{{Cite news |date=1927-06-12 |title=Served as United States Senator and Governor, But Historians Ignored Him |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/winston-salem-journal-served-as-united-s/170962589/ |access-date=2025-04-23 |work=Winston-Salem Journal |pages=4}}

• Wards of Andrew Jackson

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite journal |last=Harlan |first=Louis R. |date=March 1948 |author-link=Louis R. Harlan |title=Public Career of William Berkeley Lewis |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42620964 |journal=Tennessee Historical Quarterly |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=3–37 |jstor=42620964 |issn=0040-3261}}
• {{Cite book |last=Remini |first=Robert V. |author-link=Robert V. Remini |title=Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1767–1821 |date=1977 |publisher=Harper & Row |isbn=978-0-8018-5912-0 |location=New York |lccn=77003766 |oclc=1145801830}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, William Terrell}}

Category:Businesspeople from Nashville, Tennessee

Category:1757 births

Category:1808 deaths

Category:Continental Army officers from North Carolina

Category:Members of the North Carolina House of Representatives

Category:Tavernkeepers