Army Officer And Explorer

Distinguished Family.

Meriwether Lewis was born in the Virginia piedmont on 18 August 1774 into one of the state's earliest and most distinguished families. Meriwether Lewis's great-grandfather was a Welshman who served in the British army as an officer. He arrived in Virginia in 1635 with a grant from the king for 33,333 1/3 acres of land. William Lewis, Meriwether's father, inherited 1,896 acres of land, slaves, and a house when his father, Col. Robert Lewis, died. In 1769 William married his cousin Lucy Meriwether, the daughter of a land-rich Welsh family. (Between 1725 and 1774 there were eleven marriages between Lewises and Meriwethers.) Young Boy. Meriwether Lewis was the second child of Lucy and William. In 1779, when Meriwether was five years old, his father died. He inherited £520 in cash, 147 gallons of whiskey, and a plantation of nearly two thousand acres and twenty-four slaves. It was managed by his...