American general and statesman, born in New York on the 16th of October 1754, son of Francis Lewis, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence; graduated at Princeton in 1773, and studied law in the office of John Jay. He joined the Continental army in 1774. In 1786 he was aid to General Gates, with the rank of colonel; fought at Saratoga in 1777, and in 1778 at the battle of Crown Point. After the war he was made attorney-general of New York in 1791, and a judge of the supreme court in 1792. In 1804 he was elected governor of New York, but in 1807 he returned to the practice of law. In 1812 President Madison made him quartermaster-general of the United States army, and in the next year he was promoted to the rank of major-general. He served at Niagara, and afterward took charge of the defense of New York. At the close of the war he advanced the funds necessary for the discharge of the American prisoners in Canada. He afterward devoted himself to agriculture, serving also as president of the New York Historical Society, and grand master of the order of Free Masons. He died in New York City on the 7th of April 1844.
