The Lewis Legacy
Descendants of Betty Washington and Fielding Lewis
Lewis Coat of Arms: Kenmore
VOL. 6, NO. 1
Publisher: Michael Frost, PhD
Dear Lewis Family,
I am Larry Holmes, President
General of the Lewis Family
Descendants. I was elected
President General at the
meeting of the Lewis Family
at Kenmore, home of Betty
Washington and Fielding
Lewis, Sr., in Fredericksburg,
Virginia, this past June.
The 2014 Heritage Weekend was a very exciting
time, as we met in Betty and Fielding’s mansion
for two dinners: one in the museum’s conference
room, and the other dinner in a wedding tent
within the north garden. After dinner, Saturday
night in the rose garden, we walked to the west
lawn of the mansion where we enjoyed a
Shakespearean play Macbeth by residents of
Fredericksburg. The audience of several hundred
sat in lawn chairs for the performance.
We visited the grave of Betty Washington at
Western View and the newly restored plantation
of James Madison. This year, we traveled in a
large, comfortable bus, and really enjoyed the
time together as we went from location to location
between Culpeper and Fredericksburg. We met
with Bill Garner, President of the George
Editor: Sandra Duffy
WINTER 2015
Washington Foundation that owns both Kenmore
and the boyhood home site of George and Betty
Washington. Mr. Garner and his archaeologist
showed us the excavated location of the home
where Betty and George were raised by Mary
Ball, after the death of Augustine Washington.
After visiting the Washington home known as
Ferry Farm, we traveled to Pope Creek, the birth
place of Betty and George. The views of the river
at that point were magnificent, just as similar
views are appreciated at Mt. Vernon. We
thoroughly enjoyed each other and the Lewis and
Washington family locations.
We hope to see you at this summer’s Heritage
Weekend.
Best regards,
Larry Holmes
President General
SAVE THE DATE
Next LFD Heritage Weekend
June 11-14, 2015
Thursday through Sunday
Location to be announced soon.
Table of Contents
President General’s Message............................ Page 1
Lewis Family Descendants Officers ................. Page 2
“Lewis Legacy” Spotlight ................................ Page 2
Notes on Reading Old Manuscripts ................. Page 2
Books You May Enjoy..................................... Page 2
Did you know .................................................. Page 3
Profile Portrait of Eleanor Parke Custis ............ Page 3
Crib .................................................................. Page 3
Photos / Lewis Family Heritage Weekend ......... Page 4
Ancestors of Our Members................................ Page 5
Stuart Painting of George Washington ............... Page 6
The Octagon ..................................................... Page 6
George Washington’s Troublesome Teeth ......... Page 7
Marmion Estate................................................. Page 8
Page |2
Lewis Family Descendants Officers
2014 – 2016
Lawrence Tayloe Holmes
1st Vice President General John Fielding Lewis, Jr.
2nd Vice President General Stephen Patrick Holmes
3rd Vice President General Sandra Duffy
Past President General
Michael David Frost, Ph.D.
Secretary
John Fielding Lewis, Jr.
Treasurer
Stephen Patrick Holmes
Registrar
Michael David Frost, Ph.D.
Chaplain
Samuel “Sandy” Frierson
McDonough, Jr.
Historian
Linda Reilly
Editor: The Lewis Legacy Sandra Duffy
Web Master
John Fielding Lewis, Jr.
President General
The Lewis Legacy Spotlight
The Lewis Legacy Spotlight, for this
issue, shines on Elizabeth “Betty”
Whitlock.
Betty descends from Warner Lewis,
brother of Fielding Lewis. She traces
her Lewis lineage through her father,
Fielding Lewis Marshall Jr. She was
Fielding
Lewis Marshall,
born
in Montgomery,
Alabama.Jr. She was born in
Montgomery, Alabama.
In 1959, Betty married Bennett Clarke Whitlock, Jr. in
Mobile, Alabama. They have two children and five
grandchildren.
Betty became a member of the Lewis Family
Descendants on March 16, 2010, and she attended the
2010 and 2012 Lewis Family Descendants reunions in
Virginia.
Not only is Betty a member of the Lewis Family
Descendants, she is also active with the DAR and the
Washington Northern Virginia Chapter of Jamestowne
Society.
Notes on Reading Old Manuscripts
Whether you’re reading the Declaration of
Independence or family documents, you might consider
the following.
In part due to the English language’s rich and complex
history, the spelling of English words took a long time
to become standardized.
Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary, a major aid to the
standardization of modern English, was first printed in
1755. Many of our family’s events occurred long before
that date.
Sometimes not only the spellings of words but the
forms of the letters themselves present challenges.
Take, for example, the “long s.” In the Declaration of
Independence, you will see the word “necessary”
spelled in letters that look like “necefsary.” That is
because the first “s” is written as a “long s.” This was a
holdover from an earlier style of writing used with
Latin and various other European languages. It
generally tended to be used in the middle of a word, so
it is less common to find one at the end or the beginning
of a word. It gradually faded from use as printing
became more common, and was hardly used at all by
the second half of the nineteenth century.

Books you may enjoy…
Citizen Washington by William Martin
This is a colorful, highly readable, factually-based
fictional account of George Washington’s story. It is
told as a memoir from several points of view.
House Divided by Ben Ames Williams
This book is an excellent fictional account of the
lives of the members of a Northern Virginia family
during the Civil War. It presents details of the everyday
life of the period which had not changed very much
from the days of the founding settlements. You will
recognize the area as familiar Lewis family territory.
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
This biographical account of Lincoln and his rival
candidates for the Republican nomination of 1860
presents the intricacies of the political situation leading
up to the Civil War. Its descriptions of the war and the
atmosphere in Washington, D.C., provide a parallel
account of events shown in House Divided.
(Cont’d page 3)
http://lewis-family-descendants.com
3|Page
Books you may enjoy…
Crib
a granddaughter of George W. Lewis, a son of Fielding
(Made
Lewis,
Sr. in America, ca. 1799; Mahogany and Oak)
(Cont’d from page 2)
The Civil War: A visual History by Dorling Kindersley
This book has great timelines and summaries of
action. It also works well with the two prior selections
for our understanding of the actions in Northern
Virginia.
A Prince in Their Midst by A. J. Hanna
Achille Murat was the son of Joachim Murat and
Caroline Bonaparte, youngest sister of Napoleon. His
father was one of Napoleon’s greatest generals and was
given many rewards for his service, including the throne
of the Kingdom of Naples. However, all that came to an
end when Napoleon was exiled for the second time.
Achille decided, at age 21, to immigrate to America.
Eventually, he crossed paths with and married Catherine
Daingerfield Lewis Gray, a young widow. Catherine was
a granddaughter of George W. Lewis, a son of Fielding
Lewis, Sr.
Profile Portrait of
Eleanor “Nelly” Parke Custis
(Drawn by James Sharples, ca.1796; Pastel on paper)
Did you know… Eleanor “Nelly”
Parke Custis
would come to be regarded as “the most brilliant and
beautiful young woman of her day, the pride of her
grandmother and the favorite of Washington?”
Profile Portrait of
Eleanor (Nelly) Parke Custis
Drawn by James Sharples, ca. 1796
Pastel on paper
On George Washington’s last birthday, February 22,
1799, Eleanor “Nelly” Parke Custis married
Washington’s nephew, Lawrence Lewis. For a time, the
couple lived at Mount Vernon, and according to family
history, Martha Washington presented them with this crib
when their first child, Frances Parke Lewis, was born the
following November. With classical columns, the crib
was fashionable as well as functional: a hinged side
permits the crib to be placed adjacent to a bedstead,
allowing for easy tending of the infant at night.
Article excerpted from: http://www.mountvernon.org/researchcollections/collections-holdings/nelly-custis-artifacts-in-the-mount
vernon-collection/
English artist James Sharple’s portrait of Nelly
captures her beauty and vivacious spirit at age 17.
Family tradition attributes her “wind-blow”
appearance to the fact that she ran in from the
garden to sit for the artist. One year later, the
Washingtons would relocate, permanently, to
Mount Vernon after George Washington’s second
term as president concluded. Of their return, Nelly
wrote, “When I look at this noble river, & all the
beautifull prospects around – I pity all those who
are in Cities, for surely a country life, is the most
rational & happy of any – & all of the refinements
of art and luxury are nothing in comparison to the
Beauties of Nature.”
Article excerpted from: http://www.mountvernon.org/research-collections/digital-encyclopedia/article/eleanor-nelly-parke-custis/
http://lewis-family-descendants.com
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Photos from the
Lewis Family Heritage Weekend
June 12-15, 2014
O
Posing in front of some Washington tombs are (left to right) Janet Holmes,
Valerie Reilly, Lawrence Holmes, Sandy McDonough, Stephen Holmes
and Linda Reilly.
Some Family Members in front of
St. George’s Episcopal Church
http://lewis-family-descendants.com
5|Page
6 Members descend from
12 Members descend from
Elizabeth Lewis Carter
Howell Lewis
Bostic, Eileen Davis
Goodman, Staci Jenkins
Jenkins, Ambrose Driskill III
Jenkins, Jerrald Norman
Jenkins, Richard Jeffrey
Jenkins, Stephen Driskill
Anderson, Dr. Lane Schofield III
Anderson, LeRoy Burckhardt
Bird, James Russell
De Natale, Jeanne Jasper
Lewis, John Fielding Jr.
Lewis, Lawrence Bernard
Mathis, Margaret Anderson (Peggy)
Miller, Caroline Stewart
Murray, Elizabeth Lyon
Slater, Edna V.
Tate, Elvira McMillan
Wooldridge, Marilyn Lewis

4 Members descend from
Fielding Lewis Jr.
Duffy, Sandra Robinson
Frost, Michael David
Pesek, Monica Ann
Simmons, Mark Anthony

3 Members descend from

John Lewis
17 Members descend from
George Lewis
Barborek, Loretta A.
Browning, George III
Browning, George IV
Browning, Morgan M.
Browning, Susan
Halter, Mary Browning
Holmes, Janet Lee
Holmes, Karen Ann
Holmes, Lawrence Tayloe
Holmes, Stephen Patrick
Johnson, Alexandria Browning
Kurkjian, Nancy Lewis
McDonough, Samuel Frierson Jr.
Reilly, Bridget Elizabeth
Reilly, Linda Holmes
Reilly, Valerie Anne
Schercinger, John Marshall

Gunter, Pattie
Lane, Claudia Stewart
Tyler, John Paul

2 Members descend from
Lawrence Lewis
Chapin, Charles Merrill III
Petrov, Barbara Ann

1 Member descends from
Nicholas Lewis
Weaver, Richard

1 Member descends from
Warner Lewis
Whitlock, Elizabeth Marshall
http://lewis-family-descendants.com
Page |6
Stuart Painting of George Washington
The portrait below depicts Dolley Madison saving the Stuart painting of George Washington just before the British
torched the “president’s house.”
As British troops approached Washington, August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812, its citizens fled.
Among the last to remain was First Lady Dolley Madison, who stayed to the very end as a demonstration of American
determination until she received President Madison’s hurried message from the Battle of Bladensburg to “clear out!”
Dolley issued her last order before fleeing: “Save the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington.”
Her inspirational courage secured this national treasure, which hangs today in the East Room and is considered the most
valuable historical object in the White House.
The Octagon
One of the earliest and finest residences which is a museum today, in Washington, D.C., was constructed 1798-1800.
The building was designed by Dr. William Thornton for John Tayloe III and his wife, Anne Ogle Tayloe, at the
urging of his friend George Washington. The house served as an important social center in Washington’s early years,
and when the British burned the White House in 1814, President Madison and his family lived in the Octagon for six
months as the city rebuilt. It was here that the Treaty of Ghent was signed by President Madison in February 1815,
formally ending the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States.
The Tayloe family lived in the house until Anne’s death in 1855. After Anne’s death, her sons rented the house, first
to a Catholic girls school, and later to the federal government for office space. By the 1880s,
the building housed numerous poor families as a
tenement.
Around that same time, the American Institute of
Architects, headquartered in New York City, began
looking for a new national headquarters location in
Washington, D.C. In 1898, the AIA rented the Octagon,
and the organization purchased the building in 1902.
The Octagon Museum
The Octagon returned to its Tayloe-era appearance in the
1960s and the 1990s, when major restoration efforts were
undertaken.
http://lewis-family-descendants.com
The Octagon
Painting by artist Peter Wadell
7|Page
George Washington and His Troublesome Teeth
Washington was afflicted with dental troubles all his
adult life. Despite his legendary physical strength and
iron constitution, George Washington’s failing teeth
were a source of constant suffering. At age 24,
Washington recorded in his diary that he paid 5 shillings
to a “Doctr Watson” who removed one of his teeth.
Letters and diary entries later in his life make regular
reference to aching teeth, lost teeth, inflamed gums, illfitting dentures, and a host of other dental miseries.
Payments to dentists and purchases of toothbrushes,
teeth scrapers, denture files, toothache medication, and
cleaning solutions are also regularly
present in Washington’s communications
throughout his life.
within a new set of dentures or if he employed the teeth
at all. While this transaction might seem morbid to a
modern audience, purchasing human teeth was a fairly
common practice in the 18th century for affluent
individuals.
Despite all his attempts to save his remaining teeth,
Washington was down to just one tooth at the time of his
inauguration as the first President of the United States.
This final survivor was finally pulled by Dr. John
Greenwood in 1796 and Washington allowed his dentist
to retain this famous tooth as a memento.
Dr. Greenwood eventually had the tooth
inserted into a small glass display that he
hung from his watch chain.
One of the most enduring myths about
George Washington is that his dentures
Washington’s dental troubles impacted
These dentures are in the collection
were made of wood. Contrary to popular
the shape of his face. As Washington’s
at Mount Vernon – the only remainmythology, they were not made of wood.
dental troubles became ever more severe,
ing full-set in existence.
It’s quite possible that some of his
many artists and close observers began to
dentures, particularly after they had been stained, took
notice significant changes in the shape of Washington’s
on a wooden complexion, but wood was never used in
face. Paintings of Washington from later in his life all
the construction of any of his dental fittings.
seem to show changes in the shape of his jaw and mouth.
Throughout his life Washington employed numerous full
and partial dentures which were constructed of materials
including bone, hippopotamus ivory, human teeth, brass
screws, lead, and gold metal wire.
Aware of his failing dental health, George Washington
retained several of his pulled teeth for use in his dentures
within a locked desk drawer at Mount Vernon. In a
Christmas Day 1782 letter, Washington wrote to Lund
Washington, his distant cousin and the temporary
manager of Mount Vernon, requesting that the teeth be
wrapped up and sent to him in Newburgh, New York.
Washington hoped that these original teeth could be used
within new dentures that were being fitted for his use.
"In a drawer in the Locker of the Desk which
stands in my study you will find two small (fore)
teeth; which I beg of you to wrap up carefully,
and send inclosed [sic] in your next letter to me.
I am positive I left them there, or in the secret
drawer in the locker of the same desk."
Deep within one of Washington’s account books is an
entry which details Washington’s purchase of nine teeth
from “Negroes” for 122 shillings. It’s not clear if
Washington intended to use these teeth as implants or
Washington was very
self-aware of the impact
that ill-fitting dentures
had on his appearance.
In a 1797 letter to Dr.
John
Greenwood,
Washington complained
how
his
ill-fitting
dentures were “already
too wide, and too
projecting for the parts
they rest upon; which
George Gilbert Stuart's circa 1798
causes both upper, and
portrait of George Washington.
under lip to bulge out, as Take note of how Washington's
if swelled.” In a separate jaw and mouth are more distended
letter the following year,
in this portrait. (Mount Vernon
Ladies' Association)
Washington noted that
another set of dentures
had “the effect of forcing the lip out just under the nose.”
Washington’s dental troubles made him less willing and
able to speak. Always sensitive about his appearance and
comportment, Washington was no doubt self-conscious
about his dentures and the troublesome contraptions also
made speaking more of a challenge.
Article excerpted from: http://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/the-man-the-myth/the-trouble-with-teeth/
http://lewis-family-descendants.com
Page |8
Marmion Estate
Pictured on the left the sign reads: "Two miles north is Marmion, probably built
by John Fitzhugh early in the eighteenth century and later named for Scott's poem.
About 1785 it passed from Philip Fitzhugh to George Washington Lewis,
Washington's favorite nephew, who died there. Marmion has come down in the
Lewis family in direct line from him. The richly decorated interior is one of the
best in Virginia."
Colonel William Fitzhugh of Bedford immigrated to Virginia in 1670, and built a
house soon after his arrival to King George County. In 1674, he titled the land of
his new home as the “Marmion” estate. This house is believed to be incorporated
into the existing mansion. His youngest son, William ‘Marmion’ Fitzhugh,
inherited the estate. His son, Colonel William Fitzhugh was born in the ‘Marmion’ house. William was close
friends with George Washington.
An architectural survey indicates the home was built in several stages. Much of the ‘Marmion’ plantation house,
as it appears today, was built after 1790 according to construction practices of the 18th century.
In 1797 Marmion was purchased by Major George Lewis
(1757-1821), the favorite nephew of George Washington, son
of Fielding and Betty Lewis of Fredericksburg. George Lewis
served as Washington’s Aide-de-Camp during the
Revolutionary War. He was married to Catherine Daingerfield
Lewis (1764-1821). Marmion was inherited by their son,
Captain Daingerfield Lewis (1757-1862), and his wife Lucy
Brockenbrough Pratt Lewis (1764-1820). Marmion was then
inherited by their son, Fielding Lewis (b. 1808) who married
his cousin, Catherine Daingerfield Lewis (1820-1849).
“Marmion” house
Marmion then became the home of Mrs. Robert Carter Nicholas Grymes, otherwise known as Lucy Lewis
(1787-1856), the last of seven generations of Lewises to own the house. Lucy was the great granddaughter of
Colonel Fielding and Betty Lewis, who built the Kenmore Plantation in Fredericksburg, and financed a gun
factory and arsenal in Fredericksburg. Fielding Lewis also financed the Virginia Navy, a fleet of war ships on
the Rappahannock River during the Revolutionary War. Marmion remained in her family for the next 150 years.
Marmion is a two-story frame with a clipped gable roof, two chimneys and bay windows, all asymmetrically
placed. Just outside the main house was a smokehouse, a dairy, a kitchen and office.
‘Marmion’ was listed on the National Register of Historic
Places on February 26, 1970, and Virginia Landmarks
Register on December 2, 1969. It is mostly known for the
woodwork taken from the parlor and displayed at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art (American art section) in
Manhattan, New York. The walls were painted with
landscapes, vases and cornucopias filled with flowers.
Paneling from Marmion,
the Fitzhugh House, ca.
1758; painting ca. 1770–80
Located in King George County, Marmion is near Routes 649
and 609, in Virginia.
With a corner fireplace and
two corner cupboards, this
fully paneled room has seven
sides.
Article excerpted from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/moyersteam/8097650490/ and http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/16.112
http://lewis-family-descendants.com