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Anne Lewis
b.14 Feb 1732/33 Hanovertown, Paumunkey Neck, Hanover County, Virginia
d.2 Jul 1835 Rutherfordton, Rutherford, North Carolina, USA
Family tree▼ (edit)
m. 1717
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m. 1753
Facts and Events
[edit] Information on Anna LewisDavid Lewis's 8th daughter, Ann Lewis, the wife of Joel Terrell Jr and (2nd) Stephen Willis Sr, wrote that she was born near Hanovertown in Hanover County in February 1733. [Genforum.com post
Miss Terrell, was born in Hanover county, Virginia, in 1733. She was a woman of ordinary size, weighing about one hundred and thirty-five pounds, and was endowed by nature with a remarkably strong constitution and vigorous intellectual powers. She was never confined a day to her bed by sickness in her life. She was raised at a time when there were but few schools in the country. By the aid of her father, together with her own untiring assiduity and diligence, she acquired a very good English education. Piety, industry, longanimity, probity and charity were prominent traits in her character. About the year 1750 she emigrated from Hanover with her father to Albemarle county, Virginia, where she married, in 1753, her cousin, Joel Terrell, Jr. After her marriage they kept a hotel at Charlottesville, Va., and among their many boarders was numbered Thomas Jefferson, a young lawyer who had just hung out his "shingle." After the death of Joel Terrell, Jr., her husband, she married Stephen Willis. Several of her brothers and sisters having emigrated to the South and West, it was an inducement for her to emigrate also, she having bought land of her brother, David Lewis, in Rutherford county, North Carolina, to which place she had sent some of her negroes before her removal. In 1780 she started for her home in the South, and on her arrival at her brother's, Wm. T. Lewis', on the Yadkin, in Surry county, North Carolina, in May, she heard that the British had captured Charleston, S. C.; so she remained at her brother's until the succeeding fall, when she moved to her home in Rutherford county, North Carolina. On her arrival at her home she found no one there. She at once concluded that the British and Tories had taken off all her negroes, as Colonel Ferguson, a short time previous, had marched through Rutherford county. But on her meeting with her friends she found that her sister, Mrs. Susannah Mackey, had them hid out in the river hills. In order to save his property Stephen Willis was forced to take the oath of protection by pledging himself not to raise arms against the King of England; but at the same time his son Stephen, by his first wife, was in the army doing good service for the colonies. Stephen Willis's first wife was a sister to Joel Terrell, the first husband of Mrs. Anna Willis. Before the Revolutionary war Mrs. Anna Willis was a member of the Church of England, but always desired to be immersed. After the death of Mr. Willis, her second husband, who was a Presbyterian, she was immersed in Broad river on the plantation of her son, Joel Terrell, Jr., about three miles southwest of Rutherfordton. She used spectacles until she was over ninety years of age. At one hundred she could read without the use of glasses, her eyesight having returned. On the morning of her one hundredth birthday she presented to her grandson, James O. Terrell, a copy of the " Westminster Confession of Faith," which was printed in old style, bound in calf and dressed with the hair on. On the fly-leaf of said book she wrote with her own hand as follows: " Presented by me to my grandson, James O. Terrell, February 14, 1833. This day 1 am one hundred years old. " Anna Willis." At one hundred years of age she walked as erect as a girl of sixteen, using, however, a walking staff to prevent her from stumbling. Instead of a bonnet she wore a straw hat with a ribbon around it. After the death of her husband and her son, Joel Terrell, Jr., she continued to reside with her grandchildren. She resided with Col. Arthur Erwin, who married Evalina A. Terrell, her granddaughter, until 1834, when Col. Erwin moved to Georgia, after which time she resided with William L. Griffin, her grandson, until the day of her death, which event occurred on the second of July, 1835, at the advanced age of one hundred and two years, four months and a few days. On the morning of the day of her death she arose as usual, dressed herself and walked to the fire, but complained of a slight dizziness. A cup of coffee was furnished her which she drank, and then returned to her bed, lay down and immediately expired, almost without a groan or struggle; apparently without pain or suffering. Thus ended her long and useful career of over five score years. Her remains were interred by the side of her son in the graveyard at her old homestead, near Rutherfordton, N. C. Mrs. Anna Willis had ten children by her first husband and none by the second. Their names were as follows:
Source: Genealogy of the Lewis family in America, by William Terrell Lewis References
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