Charles Lilburn Lewis

Sons Isham and Lilburne brutally murdered an enslaved boy named George in December 1811.

After it was determined that the men were involved, Lilburne killed himself and Isham escaped jail and died following his service in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.

[2] After their wedding, they lived in a two-story log cabin on a portion of the Buck Island plantation that was south of the Rivanna River.

[17] During the Revolutionary War, Lewis joined his father in signing a declaration of independence of the citizens of Albemarle County.

[2][3] Charles and his brother Isham joined the Continental Army company with their neighbor, Dr. George Gilmore, who was a lieutenant.

[20] By 1806, Lewis had lost his fortune[12] due to a number of agricultural losses, and perhaps poor management.

[23] According to Boynton Merrill Jr. in Jefferson's Nephews: A Frontier Tragedy, Lewis had fallen on hard times at the end of the 18th century and was forced to sell his land and slaves.

[12] Isham wrote to his uncle Thomas Jefferson in April 1809 looking for assistance in getting a start on adult life.

After two weeks of instruction at Monticello, Jefferson gave him two letters of introduction to secure a surveying position.

The 21 Lewis family members included 12 children, three unmarried daughters of Charles and Lucy, and six adults.

[28][f] When they arrived, life was difficult due to the fear of attack by Native Americans, shortage of coins for purchases, and a severe depression.

[17] Isham had "appeared at Rocky Hill for a visit of undetermined length" in 1811 after his mother, Lucy, had died.

The brothers tried to hide the remains of George, but his body was revealed two months later, when a chimney collapsed in one of the major aftershocks.

Lilburne and Isham were indicted by a grand jury, the trial was delayed for three months and they returned to Rocky Hill to await the court dates.

[23] In 1953, Robert Penn Warren published a lengthy poem entitled Brother to Dragon: A Tale in Verse and Voices that retells the story of the Lewis family and the murder of George.

[28] Afraid for her life, Lilburne's wife Letitia took her newborn baby and moved to her father's house in Salem, Kentucky.