Francis Lewis was born on March 21, 1713 in Llandaff, Wales. He was the only child of the Rev. Francis Lewis, rector of Llandaff, Glamorganshire, Wales, and Amy Pettingal of Caernarvon. Left an orphan at an early age, he spent his childhood and youth, under the care of his mother's relatives, in Wales.
He was educated in Scotland and attended Westminster School in England.
Lewis entered a mercantile house in London, then moved to Whitestone, New York in 1738 and began a career in trade which was distinguished for activity and finally by success. He carried on business for a time in New York and Philadelphia, returned to England for two years, and made voyages between America and northern European ports in the course of which he twice suffered shipwreck. During this period of adventure he was captured by Indians in 1756 after the fall of Oswego, where he was present as friend of the English commander and as clothing contractor for the troops. He was sent to France for exchange and afterward received from the colonial government a grant of land in acknowledgment of his military services.
In 1765, having accumulated a considerable fortune and attained a position of influence in New York, he retired to Whitestone, Long Island. In the Revolutionary agitations in New York after 1774 his participation was continuous and occasionally conspicuous. In 1774 he was a delegate to the Provincial Convention and a member of the Committee of Fifty-one and the Committee of Sixty. In July of that year he was one of the eleven who resigned from the former in protest against what seemed excessive caution in opposing Parliamentary legislation.
Throughout the exciting events of 1775 and 1776 he was active both in the proceedings of the Continental Congress and in the critically deliberate process of forming a government for the new state of New York. Increasingly identified with "continental" affairs, he was a delegate to Congress from May 1775 till November 1779 and served thereafter till July 1781 as one of the commissioners of the Board of Admiralty. He took no part in debate but was indefatigable in committee work. His long experience, orderly disposition, and practical sagacity made him a valued member of such semi-administrative bodies as the Marine, the Secret, and the Commercial committees, and finally of the Admiralty Board. He was frequently charged with duties in connection with the supply of the army. With the rest of the New York delegation he was precluded by instructions from voting for the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, but he was one of those whose signatures were appended to the document, probably on August 2, 1776.
The Revolution deprived Lewis of his home and of most of his wealth. He lived in retirement with the families of his sons until his death in his ninetieth year.
He was a strong supporter of Washington at the time of the intrigues against his leadership.
Lewis had married, on June 15, 1745, Elizabeth Annesley of New York. During the American Revolutionary War Lewis' house in Whitestone was destroyed by the British army and his wife was made prisoner. The rigorous conditions of her captivity during the months before she could be exchanged undermined her health and hastened her death in 1779. Lewis helped establish his son, Francis, in business, even making a journey with him to England to form commercial connections there.
