Barzillai Lew

In 1752, Primus married again to Rose Canterbury and bought a farm on the west side of the Nashua River in the Pepperell section of Groton, Massachusetts and they had two children.

Primus and Margret Lew's oldest son Barzillai (pronounced BAR-zeal-ya) often called "Zeal" or "Zelah," was born a free black in Groton, Massachusetts November 5, 1743.

[1] Following in his father’s footsteps, Barzillai Lew was a fifer in Captain Thomas Farrington’s Company from Groton, which marched northward for “the total reduction of Canada."

"[3] In the mid-1760s, Lew sold his family farm in the Pepperell section of Groton and moved to Chelmsford, Massachusetts, where he worked as a cooper making barrels.

"[5] At the opening of the American Revolution, Lew's skills and talents were called upon again, and on May 6, 1775, he enlisted in Captain John Ford's Company, 27th Regiment, Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

"[3] Bunker Hill was one of the most important battles in the American Revolution; inexperienced colonial forces fought a highly trained army of British soldiers.

Less well-known were the approximately three dozen African-American soldiers including Lew, Phillip Abbot †, Alexander Ames, Isaiah Bayoman, Cuff Blanchard, Titus Coburn, Grant Cooper, Caesar Dickenson, Charlestown Eaads, Alexander Eames, Asaba Grosvenor, Blaney Grusha, Jude Hall, Cuff Haynes, Cato Howe, Caesar Jahar, Pompy of Braintree, Salem Poor, Caesar Post, Job Potama, Robin of Sandowne, New Hampshire, Peter Salem, Seasor of York County, Sampson Talbot, Cato Tufts, and Cuff Whitemore, who also took part in the battle.

In 1777, on his return home to Chelmsford, Lew joined Captain Joseph Bradley Varnum's company of volunteers, Dracut, Massachusetts.

[9] General George Washington, Commander-in-Chief, excluded African Americans from serving in the Continental Army, until finally on January 2, 1778, Washington responded to a letter from General James Mitchell Varnum (born in Dracut, Massachusetts and brother of Joseph Bradley Varnum) recommending that Rhode Island's troop quota should be completed with blacks.

[10] During the war, with wages earned from his years of service, the Lew family purchased a large tract of farmland on the far side of the Merrimack River in Dracut (now Lowell, Massachusetts.)

"[3] They kept an elegant coach and fine span of horses and came on the Sabbath to the Pawtucket Society Church in as much style as any family in the town of Dracut.

[17] Years later, Dinah Bowman Lew petitioned and received from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts a pension for her husband's military service in the American Revolution.

After graduating from Pawtucketville Junior High School, Harry Lew entered the family's dry-cleaning and dyeing business.

The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill by John Trumbull , an American patriot and painter who witnessed the battle which took place on June 17, 1775. His depiction of the battle was created nine years later when Trumbull was studying in London. The black man holding a musket pictured in the right corner may have been intended to be Asaba Grosvenor, a slave belonging to the colonial officer he stands behind.
Surrender of General Burgoyne at Fort Ticonderoga hangs in the United States Capitol Rotunda.