Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Lewis, Richard
LEWIS, RICHARD (1821–1905), bishop of Llandaff, second son of John Lewis [d. 1834), barrister-at-law, of Henllan in the parish of Llanddewi Velfrey, Pembrokeshire, by his first wife, Eliza, daughter of Charles Poyer Calgen of Grove, Narberth, in the same county, was born at Henllan on 27 March 1821. His father was a prominent supporter of the reform bill of 1832 (cf. Nicholas, Annals of County Families, 904). An ancestor had married into the family of Col. John Poyer [q. v.], whose estate of Grove, with that of Henllan and Molleston amounting together to 3500 acres, passed to the bishop on the death of his only brother, John Lennox Griffith Poyer Lewis (1819-1886), a barrister of Lincoln's Inn and high sheriff of Carmarthenshire for 1867.
Educated at the grammar school of Haverfordwest and at Bromsgrove school (Feb. 1835 to 1839), he matriculated at Worcester College, Oxford, 18 June 1839, being Cookes scholar 1839-43. Owing to ill-health, he graduated B.A. in 1843 in the 'pass' examination with an honorary fourth class. He then travelled for two years with his brother through central and south-eastern Europe, Egypt, as far as the second cataract, and, crossing the desert, through Palestine, Asia Minor, and Greece. He was ordained deacon in 1844 and priest in 1846 by the bishop of Oxford. After serving a curacy at Denchworth near Wantage he was on 17 Sept. 1847 presented by his grandfather to the vicarage of Amroth, Pembrokeshire, a Poyer living of which he afterwards became patron. This he relinquished for a curacy at Flaxley, Gloucestershire, and in 1851 he was preferred by the lord chancellor to the rectory of Lampeter Velfry, a purely agricultural parish, with a Welsh-speaking population of about 1000, adjoining his native place and comprising a part of the family estate.
Bishop Thirlwall refused to institute him, on the ground of his inadequate knowledge of Welsh, but an appeal to the archbishop was decided in his favour (23 June 1852) (Dean Roberts of Bangor in Y Geninen, January 1906). He became rural dean of Lower Carmarthen in the same year. He catechised the scholars in the Sunday school every Sunday, and the number of communicants rose from fifteen in 1851 to one hundred and ton in 1883 (see his 7th Visitation Charge, 1903). He was prebendary of Caerfarcbell in St. David's Cathedral from 1867 to 1875, archdeacon of St. David's, prebendary of Mydrim, and chaplain to the bishop (Basil Jones) from 1875 to 1883, the archdeaconry, which was pro hac vice in the gift of the crown, being conferred on him by the prime minister, Disraeli. He was exceptionally active throughout his archdeaconry, but he was scarcely known outside before the Church Congress held at Swansea in 1879, when as chairman of the subjects committee and of one of the public meetings he gave an impression of tact and judgment (Dean Roberts, loc. cit.). On the advice of Dean Vaughan and Dean Allen (of St. David's) he accepted in Jan. 1883, with some hesitation, when sixty-two years old, and with little experience of urban or industrial conditions, Gladstone's offer of the see of Llandaff, which had not been held by a Welshman since 1675. He was consecrated on 25 April 1883 at St. Paul's Cathedral by Archbishop Benson — it being his first consecration — was enthroned on 1 May, and soon afterwards received the degree of D.D. from Oxford by diploma.
The Church Extension Society founded by Lewis's predecessor, Alfred Ollivant [q. v.], in 1850 had practically exhausted all its funded capital before the end of 1883. After visiting every parish in the diocese and after realising the deficient revision i n the industrial districts, Lewis inaugurated the Bishop of Llandafi's Fund for the erection of inexpensive churches in populous districts, and for the support of additional curates. Starting the fund with a personal contribution of l000l. (to which later he added 1000 guineas), he asked for 50,000l., of which 20,000l. was raised within a year, and the total reached before his death was 60,155l. 18s. 3d., of which 27,061l. had been expended in building grants and 23,232l. in grants for the stipends of curates. In 1897 he started a Poor Benefice Fund, which has since been affiliated to the Queen Victoria Clergy Pension Fund. In 1898 he established a diocesan Sunday, on which collections should be made throughout the diocese for the four chief diocesan funds, namely, the two already mentioned and those of the Church Building Society (established by Ollivant in 1845) and the Church Schools Association. A million shilling thank-offering fund, opened by the bishop in 1901 (to commemorate the nineteenth century) proved disappointing ; only some tenth of that sum was realised. During his episcopate he confirmed 83,844 candidates, some 30 new parishes were formed, 100 new churches built or rebuilt, and 130 restored.
One of the carUest acts of the bishop was to establish an annual Diocesan Conference, which first met in October 1884. His addresses at these conferences and even his visitation charges were mainly devoted either to administrative matters or to a spirited defence of the church and its property, including exposure of what he regarded as unfair treatment of its schools. A broad churchman, he pursued a policy of toleration in matters of ritual, and secured the obedience of clergy who inclined to ritualist excesses.
After the death of William Basil Jones [q. v. Suppl. I] in 1897, he, as senior Welsh bishop, was frequently consulted by the primate on questions relating to Wales, especially as to education. He refused to countenance any compromise on the question of church schools (South Western Daily News, 28 Feb. and 29 April 1903); with much reluctance he met the teachers' representatives in an abortive conference at Llandaff on 23 Nov. (ibid.). He was imable, from stress of work or disinclination, to take any part in the administration of the South Wales University College. To him was largely due in 1892 the establishment, within his diocese, of a theological college (St. Michael's) for the post-graduate training of candidates for orders.
Lewis was president of the Church Congress at Cardiff in 1889, spoke at the Rhyl Congress of 1891 on the church revival in Wales, and presided at a meeting on the church in Wales at the London Congress in 1899. He also presided over a committee of the Lambeth Conference of 1887 which considered the care of emigrants. He took his seat in the House of Lords on 14 April 1885. He attended rarely, but uniformly voted on the conservative side.
Somewhat lacking in sympathy with modern Welsh nationalism, he took little part in any Welsh movement unconnected with the church, but was keenly alive to the necessity of utilising the Welsh language in the services of the church and also for church defence. He insisted on Welsh-speaking clergy serving parishes when Welsh was spoken, and declined to institute patrons' nominees who could not speak Welsh. The exercise of such discretion on his part was upheld in the law courts (Law Reports, 20 Q.B.D. 460; 58 Law Times, 812).
The bishop died at Llandaff on 24 Jan. 1905, and was buried at Llanddewi Velfrey. He preserved his physical vigour till near the end. A life-size gilt-bronze statue, in ecclesiastical robes, by (Sir) W. Goscombe John, R.A., was erected in the cathedral, being unveiled on behalf of the subscribers by Viscount Tredegar on 17 Dec. 1908. A portrait in the Palace, Llandaff, by Mr. A. S. Cope, R.A., was presented on the twenty-first anniversary of his accession to the see (3 Nov. 1904).
In April 1847, while a curate at Denchworth, Lewis married Georgiana King, daughter of Major John Lewis of the Hon. East India Company. She died at Llandaff on 24 Feb. 1895. Their only child, Arthur Griffith Poyer Lewis (1848–1909), educated at Eton and University College, Oxford, where he rowed in the university boatrace of 1870, was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn on 17 Nov. 1873, and joined the South Wales circuit. He was registrar to the diocese of Llandaff from January 1885 to April 1898, secretary to the bishop from 1897 to 1908, and chancellor of the dioceses of Llandaff and St. David's (1908–9). He was also recorder of Carmarthen (1890–1905), stipendiary magistrate for Pontypridd from July 1905, and chairman of the quarter sessions of Haverfordwest from 1907 and of Carmarthenshire from 1908 (Foster's Men at the Bar; Who's Who, 1909; Western Mail, 6 May 1909).
[South Wales Daily News and Western Mail (Cardiff) of 25 Jan. 1905 and a Welsh article in Y Geninen (Carnarvon) for January 1906 by the Dean of Bangor give the fullest and most reliable account of Bishop Lewis. See also articles by Mr. J. E. Ollivant in the Llandaff diocesan magazine for March 1905 and in Guardian 1 Feb. 1905; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Distinguished Churchmen (1902), by Charles H. Dant. The primary authorities for the bishop's episcopal work are the reports of the Llandaff Diocesan Conference from 1884 on (notably that for 1904, containing his own review of the progress made), and his visitation charges (both published at Cardiff), and also, from March 1899 on, the Llandaff diocesan magazine, each number of which gives inter alia a list of the public engagements fulfilled by the bishop in the preceding quarter. A summarised account of Dr. Lewis's episcopacy was given by his successor (Dr. Hughes) to the Welsh Church Commission on 11 June 1908 (Minutes of Evidence, book iii. pp. 511 et seq.]