Mat Woodworth (boldlinedesign@gmail.com), a most talented commercial artist, drew our Lewis family crest, and Monica and Ray Sommerville of  Sommerville Pottery in Pulteney, NY are making pottery including handmade mugs, trivets, cheese boards and other ceramic items.  Click on “Lewis Family” to get to more photos and pricing information.

We are one of many Lewis families from Wales.  Our crest was borne by Rhys Goch ca 1070.  Rhys was a local tribal chieftain from the area near present-day Abergavenny, Wales.  The crest is a Welsh dragon with a bloody severed left hand in it’s mouth.  No one knows the exact story of the dragon with the bloody hand.  There is a woodcarving of the crest in black oak over the fireplace of the dining room at Gregygnog, a manor that is now a residential educational center of the University of Wales Institute of Rural Health.  It is #10 at this web page Blayney Room Lewis Crest

7 thoughts on “Lewis Family Crest Is Ready

  1. Are the Lewis name, dragon head, and motto sentiment perhaps derived from Viking origin. Any ideas as to why it’s usually a left hand depicted in the mouth? My Lewis mother’s rendering of the motto was: A brave man is a native man in a foreign land. My y DNA and that of my sister mitochondrial DNA both have Viking hits.

    • Greetings Ed. I have gotten 50 – 100 spam comments a day, so quit looking at them. It is now sorted, so I can see the real ones.
      The dragon is a Welsh symbol, and my Lewis male ancestors were in Wales long before the Vikings invaded. My guess (all it is) would be that your Viking DNA comes from other ancestors.
      Happy New Year!
      Mark

    • Hi Ed, I have a good chunk of Western European DNA and Scandinavian (Norwegian). There are multiple origins for the surname Lewis, but 2 main ones being of Norman and Welsh origins. My Lewis’s are traced to Ireland , but we don’t know where they came from before that (yet). Cheers, Dave.

      • I believe at one time there were 3-4 brothers that were living around Wales / Ireland before coming to North America

  2. The story I have is a father who was dying split his assets in half except 1 island he told his sons that if they raced toward the island the one that touched the island with his hand first would get the island. The boys raced their boats toward the island and the older brother was about to touch the island first so the younger one sliced his hand off and threw it on to the island and won

    • I have also heard this family story. The family also claimed to be involved in overseas commerce(owned shipping company) before they came to the US in the 1600s.

  3. Just a thought but if it was conceived 1070ad that is around the Norman conquest of the islands is it not? Could the Dragon be the symbol of the invader/Conqueror and the hand possibly be the “Long Hand” of Lugh?

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