He was born on October 1, 1732 in New York City, New York, United States, the son of John and Catherine Pintard. He was descended from Anthony Pintard who had escaped from his native La Rochelle after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and in 1695 settled in Shrewsbury, New Jersey.
Lewis received a fair schooling and a good commercial training in his father's prosperous shipping and commission business to which he later succeeded.
By the outbreak of the Revolution, Pintard was reckoned as one of the substantial merchants of New York City. He was a member of the Committee of One Hundred, organized in New York in the spring of 1775. Shortly afterward the Provincial Congress appointed Henry Remsen, Jacobus Van Zandt, and Pintard as a committee to procure gunpowder and clothing from Europe. Pintard remained in New York City after the British occupation and was able to carry on a moderate amount of business during the war.
He became commissary of prisoners and held the position until relieved late in the war by Abraham Skinner. There were about 5, 000 American prisoners in and around New York in the Provost, in various church and sugar houses, and in the hulks in Wallabout Bay, including the notorious Jersey. Pintard, with the aid of several deputies, did what he could to relieve their sufferings. He distributed the money and supplies gathered by Gov. George Clinton and others for the relief of the prisoners. He managed to secure easy and regular access to the prisoners and was active in arranging exchanges. Bad as conditions were, they would probably have been considerably worse had it not been for Pintard's work.
At the close of the Revolution he was commissioner for liquidating claims in the state of New Jersey against the United States. For some time after the Revolution, Pintard was the chief importer of Madeira wines into the United States and an exporter of flaxseed to Ireland. Then, like his nephew John, he suffered a heavy financial loss through the collapse of another whom he had trusted. He was able to continue, however, and engaged in the importation of sugar and molasses from the West Indies until the beginning of the War of 1812.
In 1797 he was one of the school commissioners of New Rochelle. He spent the last six years of his life at his wife's home in Princeton, "devoting himself principally to the perusal of the sacred scriptures and to the practice of every Christian virtue in domestic life, " and he died there at the home of his son-in-law, Samuel Bayard.
Lewis Pintard was a major importer of Madeira and other wines into the United States. During the Revolution he served as a commissary of prisoners in New York and in late 1782 became agent for New Jersey in settling the state’s accounts with Congress, a responsible task involving large discretionary power.
By his marriage with Susan Stockton of Princeton, New Jersey, he became the brother-in-law of Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and brother-in-law of Elias Boudinot.
In 1760, after the death of his brother John, he practically adopted the infant nephew, also named John.
