LOUIS WEISS: Life Sketch

Lewis Weiss, Conveyancer, Lawyer, and Judge. 361 



LEWIS WEISS, OP PHILADELPHIA, CONVEYANCER, 
LAWYER, AND JUDGE. 

An examination of the registers of the Moravian congre- 
gation in Philadelphia between 1743 and 1800 will abun- 
dantly repay the genealogist and antiquarian, for he will find 
in them the names and descendants of those who were not 
only active workers in the church, but distinguished in the 
civil and political history of the Province and State. We 
may mention John Stephen Benezet, the merchant ; Charles 
Brockden, for upwards of half a century the Penns' Re- 
corder of Deeds and Master of the Polls ; Edward Evans, 
the associate of Henry Antes and Count Zinzendorf in their 
efforts to organize what was undoubtedly the first Evangel- 
ical Alliance in America, in whose house on Race Street its 
seventh session was held, and who subsequently became one 
of the founders of Methodism in Pennsylvania; Thomas 
Godfrey, the friend of James Logan and inventor of the 
quadrant; Gustavus Hesselius, the first organ-builder in the 
Province, if not in the Colonies ; Henry Miller, the business 
rival of Saur and contemporary of Erankliri, and an exten- 
sive book-printer and enterprising newspaper publisher; 
Joseph Dean, a merchant and signer of the Non-importation 
Resolutions of 1765, and when the Colonies rebelled against 
the mother-country, became a member of the Council of 
Safety and of the Board of "War of Pennsylvania ; Peter 
Helm, whose services with Girard, at the Bush Hill Hos- 
pital during the yellow fever epidemic of 1793, should never 
be forgotten; and Lewis "Weiss, conveyancer, lawyer, and 
judge, who passed upwards of forty years an honored life in 
the city of his adoption. "Wilhelm Ludwig "Weiss (his bap- 
tismal name) was born December 28, 1717, in Berlin, Prus- 
sia. "With the exception of his being a student of theology 
in the seminary at Lindheim, near Erankfort-on-the-Main, 



362 Lewis Weiss, Conveyancer, Lawyer, and Judge. 

in 1744, and on graduating was ordained a minister, we 
know but little of his early life. Neither do we know the 
cause of his withdrawing from the ministry to study law, 
and emigrating to America, where he arrived in Decem- 
ber of 1755, and made Philadelphia his home. Here, with 
other citizens, we find him, in 1756, devising means for the 
relief and protection of the frontier settlements from the 
inroads of the Indian allies of the French. 

In 1760, Mr. "Weiss became associated with Henry Miller 
in the publication of the Staatsbote, a German newspaper 
which had a large circulation throughout the Colonies and 
wielded a considerable influence among his countrymen. 
His connection with this paper, however, did not long con- 
tinue. "When the Indians, in 1763, were again devastating 
the frontiers, he once more became an active participant in 
the measures for their defence, and frequently visited Beth- 
lehem, where his advice and sympathy gave confidence, and 
where on a certain occasion, in his anxiety to hasten to 
Philadelphia, to present a memorial to the Governor, " he 
forgot to pay his Tavern reckoning." Writing to Colonel 
Timothy Horsfield, under date of August 1 , 1763, he refers 
to his application for arms for the use of the frontier settlers, 
describes an interview with Joseph Galloway, who hesitated 
to issue them, and then adds, " One honest Quaker, to 
whom I related this, told me I should not lose this oppor- 
tunity to get the arms, and that he would be security for all 
that should be lost, broke, or stolen." The arms were 
issued ! In another letter, dated August 15, he writes, " I 
herewith send you a copy of Martial Law, that will do 
honour to our Law Books. Who could think that Friend 
Penn and all his associates would ever be proxy for the 
framing of a Law as this ?" 

The wrongs which many of the German emigrants who 
came to Pennsylvania suffered during their transportation, 
the impositions practised when they landed in a strange 
country, among a people whose language they could not 
understand nor could they make themselves understood, 
led to so much distress that the Assembly was petitioned 



Lewis Weiss, Conveyancer, Lawyer, and Judge. 363 

for their relief. The passage of an act, in 1749, produced 
some amelioration, but there were still so many complaints 
that finally, in 1764, the " German Society" was organized 
by citizens of German birth to supply poor, sick, and dis- 
tressed Germans with relief. Lewis "Weiss took an active 
part in its organization, and drew up the Constitution and 
Eegulations which governed the Society. From 1764 to 
1777, and again in 1785, he served as its Counsellor, in 
1781 as its President, and in 1785 as its Vice-President, and 
until his death was one of its prominent members. 

A few months subsequent to his becoming a citizen of 
Philadelphia, Mr. Weiss was admitted to practice before 
the courts of the county. His practice grew steadily, and 
his cases were mainly real-estate issues. As a land-title 
lawyer his reputation was rated high among his professional 
brethren. The only literary work of his known to us is 
" The Charters and Acts of Assembly of the Province of 
Pennsylvania, &c," which he collected and edited with 
Charles Brockden, under a resolution of the Assembly, 
and which were printed, in 1762, by Peter Miller & Co. 
These two volumes, bound in one, are known to the legal 
profession as " Big" Peter Miller. His ability as a drafter 
of legal documents was so well known that he was fre- 
quently employed by the Assembly to prepare the more im- 
portant bills which were to come before them. In August 
and September of 1778 he prepared the following : 

"An Act to repeal these several Acts of General As- 
sembly relative to the place of holding the Supreme Court 
of the Counties of Philadelphia, Chester, and Bucks. 

" To declare void the acknowledgment of Deeds and the 
Probate and Registry of Wills, taken by certain persons 
during a certain time. 

" A Supplement to the several Acts of Assembly relative 
to the importation of Negroes. 

" To explain and strengthen that clause of a former Act 
by which the disabilities of Persons not having taken the 
Test are continued during the life of the delinquent. 



364 Lewis Weiss, Conveyancer, Lawyer, and Judge. 

"A Supplement to the Chester Creek and Drawbridge 
Act. 

" To Regulate trade and navigation of the State. 

" To Regulate the mode of assessing and levying Taxes 
in the State." 

On the 20th of May, 1786, the Supreme Executive Council 
commissioned him a Justice of the Peace for South Mul- 
berry "Ward, and six days later a Justice of the Courts of 
Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions of the City and County 
of Philadelphia. He was also commissioned a Justice of 
the Orphans' Court, November 13, 1786. These positions 
he filled with ability until 1791, when the courts were 
reorganized under the new Constitution, whereupon he 
resumed his profession. From 1780 to 1795, Mr. Weiss 
resided on Arch Street, " the third door below the house 
which is right opposite to the gates of the English Church 
Burying-Ground" (No. 159), where he announces in the 
Pennsylvania Packet, " he continues to draw all manner of 
writings for transferring and assuring the property and 
possession of real and personal estates, settlements, cov- 
enants, and agreements upon titles of land and rights in 
claims or controversy, to lay before Council, Judges, audi- 
tors, or arbitrators ; Letters of attorney or agency, to trans- 
act business in foreign countries ; also Petitions, memorials, 
or addresses to Congress, and its several Departments or 
Committees, to the Representatives in Assembly, the Presi- 
dent of Council, and Courts of Judicature. He also trans- 
lates into English any foreign contracts, or other writings 
of a public nature, from French, German, Hollandish, and 
Latin languages." In the year 1796 he removed to No. 152 
North Third Street, and at the date of his death was residing 
at No. 158 North Fifth Street. 

Lewis Weiss was twice married ; the first time, in 1752, to 

Christina , by whom he had two children, who died 

young. In 1761 he was married to Joana Mary Pfliiger, 
a native of Hanover, Germany, and had issue eleven chil- 
dren, eight of whom died before reaching the age of ma- 
turity, by which his male line became extinct. Three 



Lewis Weiss, Conveyancer, Lawyer, and Judge. 365 

daughters married : Sarah, in 1788, to John Peter, of Phila- 
delphia; Rebecca, to George Klein, printer, of Carlisle; and 
Louisa, in 1793, to John Wyeth, printer, of Harrisburg, 
Pennsylvania, who have left descendants. Mr. "Weiss died 
on Saturday, October 22, 1796. Well educated, an accom- 
plished jurist and judge of undoubted probity, he united 
the learning of the law with his scholarly accomplishments, 
but he lived not for fame, but for duty. 


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