Samuel Lewis (c.1756 – prob after 1820) and Sarah Stiles (1768-10-06 – 1806?) were my 5th-great-grandparents, being the parents of Sarah, wife of Erastus Bingham. I have relied on disparate sources to infer their identities and origins.

Identification

My 4th-great-grandmother Sarah (née Lewis) Bingham’s death certificate lists her place of birth as Weathersfield, Vermont, and her parents as Samuel Lewis and Sarah Stiles.^ref Her marriage record to Erastus also shows her as a resident of Weathersfield.

Next, The Stiles family in America, p. 236, has an entry for one Sarah Stiles, a sixth-generation descendant of the immigrant John Stiles Sr.:^ref

Sarah, born at Pittsfield, Mass., Oct. 6, 1768; married ⸺ Lewis ; removed to Wethersfield, Vt.; died 1806.

Finally, the Lewisiana (vol. 13, p. 170^ref) includes a family of a Samuel Lewis, born around 1756, son of Jabez Lewis who died in Weathersfield (vol. 6, p. 8^ref), with 6 children, including a Sarah, but with few details beyond names. The Samuel Fuller descendants Mayflower book adds to this information that Samuel was a witness to his brother Jabez Jr.’s land sale in Weathersfield in 1802.^ref

Putting all this together, it’s pretty clear that the Lewis that Sarah Stiles married is this Samuel, and these are the parents of my 4th-great-grandmother Sarah.

Origins

The Lewisiana gives Samuel’s parents as Jabez Lewis (c.1736–c.1806) and “Mary Hayman (or Hinman)”, and that he was born around 1756 in “probably” Huntington, New York. Jabez’s ancestry is well-documented, but no further information about Mary seems to exist beyond what was in the newsletter, nor have I seen anyone attempt to trace her, even though the surname is distinctive and so a good clue.

Sarah was the eldest child of six of Eli Stiles (1746-05-22 ­– after 1806) and Sarah, born in Pittsfield, MA. Eli’s ancestry is also fairly well-documented, but Sarah’s maiden name is unknown. Also, Eli’s Stiles ancestry beyond his grandfather (and perhaps even father) has been disproven by DNA; see Stiles paternity.

Family

The Lewisiana says Samuel had six children: Jesse, Stephen, David, Sherman, Sarah, and Rachel. These may be in birth order, but the census records below suggest not. No birthdates are provided for any, and the only detail added is that David married Betsey Stoddard of Claremont, New Hampshire in 1824.

This information may be collated with early Federal censuses, in which a Samuel Lewis who appears to be this person appears in Weathersfield from 1790 to 1820:

There is a Samuel in Ticonderoga, New York in 1830, but he appears to be too young to be our subject.^ref

We may need a little wiggle room with ages, or positing births right on the decade line, to make it all fit (and errors are not uncommon anyway). The boys in 1810 are presumably the four sons in the above list. There seem to be three daughters at least, not two, given the 1800 census; it may be that one was missed in the list, or died young and wasn't counted, or is a niece or something, or was erroneously recorded. The oldest female in 1810 could be Sarah (the older), but she had supposedly died, so Samuel may have remarried. 1820 is harder to make sense of, with several young children; Samuel may have had more children with a later wife, but, given the above list, it seems more likely he is living with, say, a daughter and grandchildren, or perhaps that this is even a different Samuel.

Here are the children with what I have on them, often little:

• Jesse. There are a couple of Jesses who might be this person, and I haven’t tried to puzzle them out.
• Stephen. He was presumably the Stephen Lewis who married Thankful Bemas on 1818-04-09 in Weathersfield.^ref He had a son Lucius who lived in Wisconsin.^ref
• David (*1797×8). The claimed marriage to Betsy Stoddard is recorded in Claremont on 1823-05-15 (not 1824).^ref There is a couple David and Betsy in the 1850 census in California who appear to be match, where David is reported to be 52 and born in Vermont.^ref
• Sherman (*c.1810), married a Fanny and moved to Chateaugay, NY, if as is likely he’s the same person recorded in several censuses.^ref However, these ages imply he was born after Sarah’s reported death in 1806, so he may be a child of a later wife; see below.
• Sarah (1795-06-13 – 1868-03-10), my 4th-great grandmother. Her death record gives her age as 72y8m28d, from which I calculated her birthdate. I hope they accounted for the leap year.
• Rachel. A Rachel Lewis married a William Morrison in 1813 in nearby Windsor^ref, who might be the same person.

This scanty information is at least consistent with census reports.

Remarriage?

There are later marriages recorded of a Samuel Lewis in the general area. The names are common, so it’s difficult to be sure if it’s the same person or not.

• There is a marriage of Samuel M. Lewis to Nancy Oakes in abutting Springfield on 1803-11-23^ref. This is almost certainly a different person. Someone consistently named with that middle initial appears in the census over in Springfield in 1810^ref and 1820^ref and is surely this other person and not our subject Samuel. He is presumably the Samuel (no middle initial) who died in Springfield with wife Nancy in 1827.^ref
• There is a marriage of Samuel Lewis to Sally Kenney in Reading on 1802-01-19.^ref Although Reading is not far away, it makes more sense that this is the Samuel born in Reading in 1779, son of Thomas and Mehitable Lewis. What became of this Samuel is not clear, however. They had a son Sanford recorded born in 1805 in Reading^ref, so he could not reasonably be any of these other Samuels.
• There is a marriage of Samuel to Miss Anna Warner on 1804-08-10 in Weathersfield.^ref This could certainly be the same person. The main hitch is that the Stiles book excerpt has Sarah not dying till 1806; however, this date is uncorroborated and could be off. An online tree claims this Samuel is the one born in Reading, but as noted the marriage to Sally is more likely him. This may suggest that the younger children are by Anna and not Sarah, and would explain the 1810 census (but not the 1820 one) and Sherman’s reported late birth. So, I consider this a strong possibility.

In summary, only the last is a reasonable candidate. More research may clarify. For example, it would be helpful to know if the recorded Sherman is in fact the son of Samuel named in the Lewisiana. And, confirmation of the claims there and in the Stiles book would be nice.

DNA

The Lewis Y-DNA haplogroup has been identified as R1b-BY137177.^ref While there are eight testees, details of their descents are not provided, so it is not clear how many generations are confirmed by these tests.

As noted above, Y-DNA has disproved Sarah’s descent from the Stiles family.

Ancestry

… of Samuel

Note that his mother is of mysterious provenance.

… of Sarah

See Stiles paternity.