Catalog of Manuscript Collections
MSS B71: Lewis Family Collection, 1550-1984
Creator: Lewis family; Rollin Carroll Welch Lewis (1848-1936); Rollin Carroll Wynkoop Lewis (1904-1984)
Extent: 6000 items
Description: This collection features material related to descendants of William Lewis (1594-1683). It includes correspondence, genealogical materials, essays, charts, legal documents, patents, deeds, biographical materials, notes, wills, diaries, estate papers, maps, poems, published books, periodicals, indexes, and other papers, of or relating to family members, compiled by Rollin Carroll Welch Lewis (1848-1936) and his son, Rollin Carroll Wynkoop Lewis (1904-1984), of Stamford, CT. Included are papers of William (1594-1683) and his family pertaining to their voyage from England in 1632 to Boston, MA, on the ship Lion, and subsequent settlement as landowners in the Hartford, Glastonbury, and Farmington, CT, area in 1636 where he was a member of Thomas Hooker's first church; Nehemiah Lewis (1705-1779); John Calhoun Lewis (1800-1849), lockmaker and state legislator; Jared Lewis, Sr. (1811-1890), grocer and local official, of Meriden, CT his son, Jared Lewis, Jr. (1836-1915), lockmaker in Meriden; and brother, Isaac Chauncey Lewis (1812-1893), president of Meriden Britannia Company (later International Silver Company), philanthropist, and mayor of Meriden. Also includes papers of and/or relating to Henry Gould Lewis (1820-1891), mayor of New Haven, CT, who was responsible for the municipal sewer system and officer of New Haven Wheel Co. and Rollin Carroll Welch Lewis, Rollin Carroll Wynkoop Lewis, and his son, Rollin Macdonnell Lewis (b. 1937); cemetery records of Wells, VT, applications to Daughters of the American Revolution and other patriotic organizations; genealogical data compiled by Albert G. Lewis (1813-1878); papers of the family of Rollin Carroll Wynkoop Lewis's wife, Elizabeth (Macdonnell) Lewis (b. 1910) in Canada including genealogical materials of clans Donald and Macdonald; and town records pertaining to collateral families. Published periodicals and books represented include Lewisiana or the Lewis Letter (periodical) and Families of Early Hartford, Connecticut (1977), by Lucius Barnes Barbour; Edmund Lewis, of Lynn and Some of His Ancestors (1908), by George Harlan Lewis; and Lewis with Collateral Lines (1910), by Harriet Southworth (Lewis) Barnes.
Research Topics: History and genealogy of the Lewis family; early settlers of Connecticut