Jonathan Lewis (1783-1817)

Jonathan Lewis
Jonathan Lewis was born April 23, 1783 in Randolph County, North Carolina, the second child of Richard Lewis and Lydia Field. When he was 23 years old, he was arrested for the murder of Naomi Wise.

The Randolph County Superior Court Minutes of March 20, 1807 recorded: “The Grand Jury returned a bill to the Court against Jonathan Lewis for Murder & indorsed thereon a trial bill upon which the said Jonathan Lewis was arraigned, plead not guilty and put himself upon his country.” Witnesses for both sides were summoned and a trial date of October 26th, 1807 was set in the Guilford County Superior Court. Jonathan was arrested on April 8th and locked in the Randolph County jail. A pre-trial hearing was held October 5th and he was indicted for the murder of Omi Wise, a single woman. On October 9th, he escaped the jail and fled to parts unknown.

Several men, including the Sheriff, Isaac Lane, were arrested for aiding Jonathan’s escape. The sheriff was cleared of guilt on a motion of nolo prosequi (do not proceed) because he was instrumental in returning Jonathan to the Orange County jail in the fall of 1811. Others were imprisoned until Governor William Hawkins granted executive clemency to William Fields, John Lewis, Ebenezer Reynolds and John Green on December 17, 1811.

Jonathan remained in jail from his recapture in the fall of 1811 until November 20, 1813. Records show that he was in the custody of the Orange County Jailer and eventually transferred to Randolph County. In October, 1812 Randolph County Superior Court Clerk, Thomas Caldwell, accepted 500 pounds as bail bond from Jeremiah Fields and Thomas Kirkman.

A year later, on October 4, 1813 Jonathan Lewis finally went to trial… for escaping jail, not the murder of Naomi Wise. The jury delivered a verdict against Jonathan; it found

The Defendant Guilty of breaking Jail & rescuing himself as charged in the bill of Indictment, but Not guilty as to the rescuing of Moses Smith (a fellow prisoner) from legal confinement: Judgment of the Court that the Defendant pay a fine of Ten Pounds and costs & be imprisoned thirty days.

He actually spent 47 days in jail because he was unable to pay the fine and court costs. On November 20, 1813 he was issued the Oath of an Insolvent Debtor, relieved of his debt and set free.

The above facts were extracted from an article titled “The Historical Events Behind the Celebrated Ballad “Naomi Wise” by Robert Roote and published by the “North Carolina Folklore Journal”, Vol. 32, No. 2, of the Fall-Winter 1984 edition.

On March 30, 1811, Jonathan Lewis married Sarah McCain in Clark County, Indiana. They had two children: Priscilla born March 4, 1812 and Thomas Willis born September 1816. Jonathan died of unknown causes on April 24, 1817 a few days before his 34th birthday. His father, Richard Lewis, died in 1826 and named Jonathan as an heir in his Will written in 1825, not knowing that his oldest son had died 8 years earlier.

Children

 * colspan="3" bgcolor="#FFfce0" style="color: #000000;" |Children of Jonathan and Sara Lewis
 * colspan="3" bgcolor="#FFfce0" style="color: #000000;" |Children of Jonathan and Sara Lewis