Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/184

 his father and published in England. After leaving India Lewis travelled largely, collecting materials for an ethnographical work, which, in consequence of subsequent ill-health and other difficulties, was never published. He died suddenly at Genoa, 26 May 1875, aged 62. Lewis's portrait of Keith Milnes was engraved as a private plate by his father. 

LEWIS, GEORGE (1763–1822), dissenting divine, born in 1763 at Trelech, Carmarthenshire, was admitted in 1781 to the Presbyterian College at Carmarthen, where he studied under Robert Gentleman [q. v.] In 1786 he became pastor of a congregation at Carnarvon, from which charge, in 1795, he was called to Llanuwchllyn, Merionethshire. Here he stayed seventeen years, immersed in theological studies, yet finding time to promote and sustain a powerful religious revival. In 1796 he issued his ‘Drych Ysgrythyrol; neu Gorph o Dduwinyddiaeth; yn cynnwys eglurhad a phrawf o amrywiol ganghenau yr athrawiaeth sydd yn ol duwioldeb … Yr ail argraffiad,’ Bala, 1812, 8vo—a small manual of divinity, which, popular from the first, has passed through numerous editions. This was followed in 1802 by his valuable Welsh commentary on the New Testament (‘Esboniad ar y Testament Newydd,’ 7 vols. 8vo), the result of about twenty years' assiduous labour. The work met with almost universal acceptance in Wales, and in 1812 the author was summoned to Wrexham to succeed Jenkin Lewis as head of the Independent Academy or Theological College, originally founded in 1755 at Abergavenny. In 1816 Lewis removed from Wrexham to Llanfyllin, Montgomeryshire, and the board in London consented to move the academy with him. In 1821 it was thought desirable to move it again to Newtown in the same county. Some nine months after the removal, on 5 June 1822, Lewis died at Newtown, and was buried in the New Chapel there, funeral sermons being preached both in English and Welsh.

All Lewis's works were written in the last-mentioned language. His Calvinism was of the type of Dr. (1616–1683) [q. v.], one of the few Welsh nonconformists by whom he was surpassed in learning. Besides the works mentioned above and some sermons, Lewis wrote:
 * 1) ‘Cyfiawnhad trwy Ffydd,’ Machynlleth, 1803, 12mo. ‘Arweinydd i'r Anwybodus, yn cynnwys cyfarwyddiadau i'r anllythyrennog i ddysgu darllen, ynghyd a hyfforddiadau byrrion tu ag at cyrhaedd gwybodaeth o egwyddorion crefydd. … Y pummed argraphiad,’ &c., Gwrecsam, 1812, 12mo.
 * 2) ‘Catecism Athrawiaethol ac ymarferol. Neu gasgliad o wirioneddau a dyledswyddau Cristnogol. … Y degfed argraffiad,’ Llanfyllin, 1818, 16mo; new ed. Wrexham, 1870.



LEWIS, GEORGE CORNEWALL (1806–1863), statesman and author, the elder son of Sir  [q. v.] of Harpton Court, Radnorshire, by his first wife, Harriet, fourth daughter of Sir George Cornewall of Moccas, Herefordshire, bart., was born in London on 21 April 1806. He was first sent to Monsieur Clement's school at Chelsea, but in January 1819 was removed to Eton, where he distinguished himself by his facility and elegance as a writer of Latin verse; many of his compositions are still preserved in a manuscript volume in the library at Harpton. Leaving school in December 1823, Lewis matriculated at Oxford on 10 Feb. 1824, and after travelling abroad for a few months commenced his residence at Christ Church in the Michaelmas term of that year. In Easter term 1828 he gained a first class in classics and a second in mathematics, and in June of the same year was elected a student of Christ Church. He graduated B.A. in 1829, M.A. in 1831, and was created D.C.L. on 24 June 1857. Having been admitted a student of the Middle Temple in June 1828, he became a pupil in the chambers of Mr. (afterwards Sir) Barnes Peacock, then a special pleader, and in 1830 he attended Austin's lectures on jurisprudence at London University. Lewis was called to the bar on 25 Nov. 1831, and joined the Oxford circuit, but owing to ill-health soon abandoned law for literature. He had now become an advanced classical scholar, could both speak and read French, German, and Italian, and had studied Spanish, Provençal, and Anglo-Saxon. In 1833 he was appointed an assistant-commissioner to inquire into the condition of the poorer classes in Ireland, and on 28 Dec. 1833 was directed by the home secretary ‘to make a particular inquiry into the state of the Irish labourers’ in the larger towns of Lancashire, and in the south-western portions of Scotland. His report, embodying the result of his investigations, is dated Dublin, 1 Dec. 1834, and was published as an appendix to the ‘First Report