William Lewis

Who was William Lewis?

William Lewis was a Pennsylvania attorney and politician.

Lewis was born in 1751 in Edgemont, Pennsylvania to a Quaker family of Welsh ancestry. Lewis read law to enter the bar in 1773. As a lawyer during revolutionary times, he consistently defended other Quakers against charges of treason after they refused to fight in battle or pay taxes. In doing so he participated in creating the foundations of the principle of Conscientious Objection.

Another of his accomplishments was his involvement in the drafting and passage of An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery in 1780. This legislation was the first legal action towards the abolition of slavery in the United States of America.

He was in private practice in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania after entering the bar until 1787, when he was elected as a representative to the Pennsylvania State Legislature. In 1789 he became the United States Attorney for the District of Pennsylvania, until 1791.

Lewis received a recess appointment from President George Washington on July 14, 1791, to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Pennsylvania vacated by Francis Hopkinson.