Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/208

Rh His son, H. Lewis, appeared at Covent Garden, 10 Oct. 1805, as Squire Groom, and played a few parts with little success. He was afterwards on the Dublin stage. 

LEWSON, JANE (1700?–1816), commonly called, eccentric centenarian, was born, it is alleged, in 1700 in Essex Street, Strand, her maiden name being Vaughan. Having been left in easy circumstances by the death in 1726 of her husband, a merchant named Leveson or Lewson, she refused several suitors, and lived in the closest retirement, though she continued to keep up a large house and garden in Coldbath Square. To the end of her life, at which period she was attended by one old man-servant, she retained the gold-headed cane, the dress and the manners of the time of George I. Her terror of taking cold led her to prohibit the use of water in her house, with the result that the windows and walls became in course of time completely crusted with dirt. Her face and hands she was in the habit of lubricating with lard. Though she rigidly excluded all drugs and doctors, she enjoyed excellent health, and is said to have cut two new teeth at the age of eighty-seven. A similar story was related by Bacon of the famous Countess of Desmond [see ]; an explanation of the apparent prodigy is given in a paper by Sir Richard Owen on ‘Longevity’ in ‘Fraser's Magazine’ (February 1872, p. 23). She had a retentive memory, and was fond of relating the events of 1715 and 1745. She died in Coldbath Square on 28 May 1816, at the reputed age of 116, and was buried on 3 June in Bunhill Fields. The story of her peculiarities, which was long popular, may have suggested to Charles Dickens Miss Havisham's environment in ‘Great Expectations.’ 

LEWYS RHYS  OWAIN (d. 1616?), deputy-herald for Wales. [See .]

LEXINTON,. [See, first , d. 1668;, second , d. 1723.]

LEXINTON or LESSINGTON, JOHN (d. 1257), baron, judge, and often described as keeper of the great seal, eldest son of Richard de Lexinton, baron, who took his designation from Lexinton (now Laxton), near Tuxford, Nottinghamshire, was a clerk of the chancery. In 1238, being then a knight, he and Geoffrey, a templar, had the custody of the seal for a short time on the dismissal of Ralph Neville, the chancellor; he again had it, also for a short time, in 1242; and in September 1247 had charge of the seal on the departure from England of John Mansel, the keeper. In 1249 and in 1253 he also had the custody of the seal for short periods. It may well be doubted whether these circumstances should cause him to be called keeper of the great seal. He was rather a temporary guardian of it during vacancies in the office of chancellor. Having been sent by Henry III as his envoy to attend the council which Gregory IX proposed to hold in 1241, he was with the Genoese fleet which conveyed the prelates going to the council when it was defeated by the Pisan and Sicilian ships under the command of King Enzio on 3 May between the islands of Giglio and Monte Cristo [see under ]. On his return he joined the king in his expedition against David, son of Llewelyn, and was sent from Chester to conduct Gruffydd ab Llewelyn [q. v.] to London. He was the following year appointed a commissioner to amend infringements of the truce with France (Fœdera, i. 244). In 1246 he was sent by the king to the bishops assembled in St. Paul's to forbid them assenting to a large demand for money which the pope was making upon them. Possibly then, and certainly in 1247, he was the king's seneschal. From 1248 onwards some notices occur of his work as a judge. When the king was at Nottingham in 1250, John swore on his behalf to the preliminaries of a truce with France, and in that year succeeded to the estates and barony of his brother, Robert de Lexinton [q. v.] In 1253 the king proposed to send him to conduct Henry's daughter, Margaret, queen of Scotland, to her mother. He was in 1255 chief justice of the forests north of the Trent, and governor of the castles of Bamburgh,