 Alan Lewrie was born on Epiphany Sunday, 1763, at St Martin in the Fields (parish), London, the bastard son of Elisabeth Lewrie and Sir Hugo St. George Willoughby, a captain in 4th Regiment of Foot.Elisabeth Lewrie had been abandoned by Sir Hugo Willoughby and died in childbirth leaving Alan Lewrie to be placed in the parish poorhouse.As a toddler he was employed as an oakum-picker and flax-pounder for the Royal Dockyards.