Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/205

Rh lor, and was a zealous member of the high church party. In February 1617–18 he was elected, by the influence of the chancellor, provost of Oriel. Wood ascribes his election to a faction of Welshmen. Lewis held the post for four years, in spite of his youth, and in spite of the scandalous rumours about his mode of life, which doubtless were aggravated, if they were not originated, by his puritan enemies. Acting on Bacon's advice, Lewis made himself an expert in the art of writing persuasive letters, and successfully begged subscriptions for the rebuilding of his college, contributing 100l. himself for the same purpose long afterwards (1637). On Bacon's fall Lewis, no longer able to withstand his enemies, abruptly resigned the provostship (21 June 1621) and went to Paris, where he was frequently employed in diplomatic business. On his return he became chaplain and secretary to George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, accompanied the duke to Rochelle in 1627, and remained in his service till the duke's assassination (1628), when he became chaplain to Charles I on Laud's recommendation (, Canterburies Doom, p. 66). Before setting out for the Rochelle expedition, on 25 May 1627, he was created D.D. at Oxford by royal letters patent, in which the king dwelt on the diligence and ability Lewis had displayed ‘in some affairs of weight wherein he had in foreign parts employed him.’ After Buckingham's expedition to Rhé, Lewis drew up ‘The General Relation of a Voyage to Rhé,’ which Wood saw in manuscript, a folio of eighteen pages. It was apparently never published. He was rewarded for his services by a canonry of Winchester, in which he was installed on 24 March 1627, and he was made master of the hospital of St. Cross 6 Feb. 1628. He was incorporated D.D. at Cambridge in 1629, and in 1631 became rector of East Woodhay, Hampshire. Lewis was ejected under the Commonwealth from all his preferments and forced to fly abroad, where his two sons became Roman catholics. He is probably the William Lewis whose estate of Llanwyby, Merionethshire, was declared forfeit for treason by act of parliament 18 Nov. 1652. He was reinstated to both his posts at the Restoration, and died at the hospital of St. Cross 7 July 1667. He was buried in the chapel there. Dr. Milner gives the Latin inscription from his gravestone, which is before the altar steps (History of St. Cross, p. 28). 

LEWIS, WILLIAM (1714–1781), chemist, son of John Lewis of London, was born in 1714. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 17 March 1730–1, graduated B.A. in 1734, and proceeded M.A. 1737, M.B. 1741, M.D. 1745. At the opening of the Radcliffe Library in 1749 Lewis delivered the oration. He practised as a physician, and in 1745 was living in Dover Street, London, but shortly afterwards removed to Kingston-upon-Thames. On 31 Oct. 1745 he was admitted F.R.S.; he died on 21 Jan. 1781. Lewis was eminent for his writings on the Pharmacopœia. His chief works were: 1. ‘A Course of Practical Chemistry,’ London, 1746, 8vo. 2. ‘Pharmacopœia Edinburgensis,’ London, 1748, 8vo. 3. ‘The New Dispensatory,’ London, 1753, 8vo, Edinburgh, 1781, 1791. 4. ‘Experimental History of the Materia Medica,’ London, 1761, 4to; 2nd edit. 1768; 3rd edit. by J. Aiken, 1784; German translation, 1771. 5. ‘Commercium Philosophico-Technicum,’ London, 1763–6, 4to. He also published translations of Caspar Neuman's chemical works in 1759, and (posthumously) of Hoffman's ‘System of the Practice of Medicine,’ 1783. Two papers by him upon platinum appeared in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ for 1754 and 1757 respectively. In 1767 the Society for the Improvement of Arts, Manufactures, &c., of which he was one of the founders, awarded him a gold medal for an essay upon ‘Potashes.’ 

LEWIS, WILLIAM (d. 1855?), writer on chess and chess-player, played in 1821 a match at Paris with Des Chapelles, the leading player in France previous to De la Bourdonnais, receiving the odds of the pawn and one move. Lewis won the first game in twenty-seven moves, the second and third being drawn (, Selection of Games at Chess, 1836, p. 273). Subsequently he settled in Nassau Street, Soho, London, and was well known as a teacher of chess. Among his pupils was Alexander McDonnell [q. v.] Some beautiful games, in which Lewis gave his pupil a pawn and move and generally won (though it is said that McDonnell could afterwards have given the same odds to him or any other English player), are given in Walker's ‘Thousand Games’ (pp. ix, 82–4). Lewis is believed to have died on 8 Feb. 1855 at New Cross (Gent. Mag. 1855, i. 442.) 