Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/182

Rh the peaceful accession of George I. Lewis's sympathies were all with his old patron Oxford. Bolingbroke speaks of him as ‘belonging to Lord Oxford,’ and Swift calls him Oxford's ‘chief favourite.’ After Oxford's fall Lewis served him as a kind of steward.

Arbuthnot told Swift in August 1715 that Lewis had ‘gone his progress,’ i.e. probably to Bath and Wales, and that if Swift would revisit them Lewis would furnish him with a collection of new stories far beyond the old ones. Lewis continued to frequent the society of Prior, Arbuthnot, Pope, and Gay, and, according to Arbuthnot, kept company with the greatest, and was ‘principal governor’ in many families. Pope and he stayed together at the house of Lord Bathurst, who, according to Spence, used to call Prior his verseman and Lewis his proseman.

On 1 Oct. 1724, at St. Benet, Paul's Wharf, Lewis married Anne Bateman, a widow of about his own age, fifty-four; her maiden name was Jennings, and her first husband, Thomas Bateman, of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, whom she had married in 1708, had died in 1719. A year later Arbuthnot wrote to Swift: ‘It is worth your while to come to see your old friend Lewis, who is wiser than ever he was, the best of husbands. I am sure I can say, from my own experience, that he is the best of friends.’ For some time previous to this, and until Arbuthnot's death in 1735, Lewis was his near neighbour in Cork Street, Burlington Gardens. In April 1727 the imaginary ‘Richard Sympson,’ writing to his publisher, Benjamin Motte [q. v.], concerning the travels of his ‘cousin, Mr. Samuel Gulliver,’ the second edition of which was just about to appear, desired Motte ‘to go to the house of Erasmus Lewis in Cork Street, behind Burlington House, and let him know you are come from me; for to the said Mr. Lewis I have given full power to treat concerning my cousin Gulliver's book, and whatever he and you shall settle I will consent.’ And to the same sheet there is appended the memorandum: ‘London, May 4th 1727.—I am fully satisfied Erasmus Lewis’ (see Gent. Mag. ii. 1855, pp. 34–6). In 1733 Lewis was a witness to Arbuthnot's will. Pope, writing from Bath, said: ‘Mr. Lewis is a serious man, but Mrs. Lewis is the youngest and gayest lady here.’ Mrs. Lewis was for years an invalid, and her husband attended her most assiduously until her death. She was buried in Westminster Abbey on 25 Nov. 1736.

In 1737 Lewis's sight was failing, but Lord Oxford, the son of his old friend, was as kind to him as Harley had been. He lived quietly in Cork Street with an ‘old maiden niece,’ as Charles Ford calls her, for housekeeper. Pope died in 1744, and left Lewis 5l. to buy a ring. Esther Vanhomrigh, ‘Vanessa,’ left him 25l. for a similar purpose. On 10 Jan. 1754 Lewis died, and was buried on the 15th in the east cloister of Westminster Abbey, his age being given in the funeral book as 83. By his will, made in February 1743, Lewis left 100l. each to Pope, Dr. Mead, and Arbuthnot's daughter Anne, and directed that he was to be buried with his wife, without any monument, except a record of his name and the day of his death. He left 200l. a year for life to his ‘cousin,’ Elizabeth Lewis, spinster, then living with him, and appointed her sole executrix. He mentioned his brothers George and Bernard, his sister Griffies, and cousin Ann. His estates in various Welsh parishes were left to trustees for the use of James Morgan, esq., of Lincoln's Inn, with remainder to his sons. A codicil was added about November 1753. His executrix, Elizabeth Lewis, died in 1762, aged 65. She had considerable property, and was buried with Lewis and his wife.

According to Pope, Lewis was corpulent. Swift, Arbuthnot, Pope, Gay, and Lord Oxford all agree in the high value they placed on his friendship. Lord Oxford speaks of his punctuality, and Arbuthnot of the engaging manner with which he won ladies' money at ombre. 

LEWIS, EVAN (1828–1869), independent minister, born at Carmarthen in 1828, was son of an architect there. He studied at Airedale College to prepare for the independent ministry, and graduated B.A. at London University. He served successively the independent chapels at Barton-on-Humber (1853–8), at Rothwell, Northamptonshire (1858–63), the Oak Street Independent Chapel at Accrington, Lancashire (1863–6), the Grimshaw Street Chapel, Preston (1866–1868), and finally the Offord Street Chapel, Islington, from October 1868 till his death. His later removals were made in search of health, but when settled in London consumption declared itself, and he died on 19 Feb. 1869 at Offord Road. At Preston he formed a day-school in connection with his chapel, and there and at Accrington he was a frequent lecturer on literary and scientific topics. He was fellow of the