Menu Close

Dinah Bowman Lew and Barzillai Lew

Barzillai Lew was born in Groton, Massachusetts in November 1743 to Primus and Margret Lew.  Following in his father’s footsteps, Barzillai Lew was a fifer in Captain Thomas Farrington’s Company from Groton.  After serving in the French and Indian War, he purchased the freedom of Dinah Bowman (1744–1837) for $400, and married her in 1768. Dinah was a pianist who had been enslaved in Lexington.

Barzillai Lew enlisted as a fifer/drummer in May 1775 in the 27th Massachusetts Regiment. He participated in the successful raid at Fort Ticonderoga in 1775 that brought the cannons back to Boston, which later drove the British out in 1776. He also fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775, playing the tune, “There’s Nothing Makes the British Run Like Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

A Flutist (ca. 1785-1810), possibly by Gilbert Stuart, is believed to be a portrait of Barzillai Lew. This painting hangs in the U.S. State Department building in Washington, D.C. (Photo: U.S. State Department)
Gerard Lew, activist and great-great-grandson of Barzillai and Dinah, holding the powder horn that was carried during the Revolutionary War. (Photo: UMass Lowell)

His name appears on the August 1, 1775 muster roll and on a September 25, 1775 company return.

The powder horn he carried throughout the war now sits in an African-American History museum in Chicago.

He was also witness to British General John Burgoyne’s surrender to American forces at Saratoga, NY in 1777.

Barzillai and Dinah Lew had several children who grew up to be musicians. Author Caleb Butler wrote in 1848, “He [Barzillai], his wife and all their numerous children were musicians, and no family in the county of Middlesex, about half a century ago, could produce so much good music, as the Lew family.”

He died on Jan. 18, 1822 in Dracut at the age of 78. He is buried in the Clay Pit Cemetery in Lowell.

His great-great-grandson, Harry “Bucky” Haskell Lew, was known as the first African-American professional basketball player in 1902.

Read about more Black residents of Lexington here.

Revolutionary War Pension Payment Ledger; Dinah Lew’s request for her husband’s pension after his death. (National Archives via FamilySearch)
Harry “Bucky” Lew, 1904. (Photo: Wikmedia Commons)

Information provided by Sean Osborne