The family was originally called
Royk. Under
Polish rule, it took the name of its long-standing possession
Lewyn (today known as
Lewino), for which the Polish King
Sigismund I had confirmed a hereditary noble possession to Jacob Royk in 1526: "The privilege was given to the noble [...] heirs of James of the town of Lewyn in the land of
Pomerania and the district of Mirochov" – Crown register No. 42 p. 125 from July 28, 1526, "The privilege of the nobles over the goods of Lewyn". In the 16th and 17th centuries, the family bore the name
von Royk Lewinski. The last of his family, Andreas Royk, is mentioned in 1662 as a taxpayer in Lewino. While one of his two sons settled in Kositzkowo, and his descendants can be traced there until the 20th century, the other son and his descendants lived on further property in
Łebno and later in Tockar,
Kreis Karthaus/
West Prussia. The last of this branch of the family, born in Dargelow in 1747, left Kashubia and entered Prussian service. At the beginning of the 18th century, only the name Lewinski appears in the documents. In the 1970s, a
City University of New York political science professor, Anne Armstrong, who was known as the Baroness von Royk-Lewinski, ran in the
Republican primary in
Bergen County, New Jersey.
Coat of arms The family's
coat of arms are red with a silver lion holding a sword in its forepaws. On the helmet with red and silver covers are three ostrich feathers (red, silver, red). == Notable members ==