Lewis was the author of numerous works on chess, mostly elementary in character. The chief of these are: 1. ‘A Treatise on the Game of Chess,’ 1814, 8vo; reduced for Bohn's Series, 1858. 2. ‘Oriental Chess, or Specimens of Hindostanee Excellence in that celebrated Game,’ London, 2 vols. 12mo, 1817. Taken largely from ‘Les Stratagêmes des Echecs,’ Strasburg, 1802. 3. ‘Greco's celebrated Treatise on Chess, with numerous Remarks … by W. L.,’ 8vo, 1819. 4. ‘Carrera's Treatise on Chess, to which is added the Art of Playing without seeing the Board,’ 8vo, 1822. 5. ‘A Selection of Games at Chess played at the Westminster Chess Club between M. L. C. De la Bourdonnais, the best Player in France, and an English Amateur of first-rate Skill’ (McDonnell), London, 8vo, 1835. 6. ‘Fifty Games at Chess, played by the Author and some of the best Players in England, France, and Germany, to which is added an Account of the Village of Stroebeck, Germany, and of the Game practised there,’ London, 8vo, 1835.
[Lewis's books in Brit. Mus. Library; Chess Players' Chron. i. 9, &c.; A. van der Linde's Geschichte und Litteratur des Schachspiels, ii. 4–6; Lowndes's Bibl. Man., ed. Bohn, p. 1355.]
LEWIS, WILLIAM GARRETT (1821–1885), baptist minister, eldest son of William Garrett Lewis, was born at Margate 5 Aug. 1821. His father, who was in business at Margate, moved to Chatham, where he was ordained and became minister of the Zion Chapel in 1824; he was the author of ‘Original Hymns and Poems on Spiritual Subjects,’ London, 1827. The son was educated at Gillingham, Margate, and Uxbridge, and from 1837 to 1840 was articled to Dr. Gray, a Brixton schoolmaster. In 1840 he obtained a clerkship in the post office, went to live at Hackney, and became an active baptist. Being chosen a minister, he worked from September 1847 at the chapel in Silver Street, Kensington Gravel Pits. On 6 April 1853 the new chapel built by his congregation in Leding Road, Westbourne Grove, was opened, and there he continued to preach with great success till the end of 1880. On 3 Jan. 1881 his congregation presented him with four hundred guineas, and he removed to the chapel in Dagnal Street, St. Albans. Lewis was one of the founders of the London Baptist Association, of which he was secretary from 1865 to 1869 and president in 1870. For nearly twenty years he was editor of the ‘Baptist Magazine.’ He died 16 Jan. 1885 at his house in Victoria Street, St. Albans, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery. He married, in December 1847, the youngest daughter of Daniel Katterns of the East India Company. His wife predeceased him, leaving a son and a daughter. Lewis was an excellent preacher and lecturer, and a man of great piety. His chief works were: 1. ‘The Religion of Rome examined,’ London, 1851, 16mo. 2. ‘Westbourne Grove Sermons,’ London, 1872. 3. ‘The Trades and Occupations of the Bible,’ London, 1875; a translation (with alterations) of this work appeared in Welsh, London, 1876.
[Times, 23 Jan. 1885; Baptist, 23 Jan. 1885; Baptist Mag., March 1885.]
LEWIS, WILLIAM THOMAS (1748?–1811), called ‘Gentleman’ Lewis, actor, of Welsh descent, the son of William Lewis, a linendraper on Tower Hill, London, subsequently an actor and manager in Ireland, was born at Ormskirk, Lancashire, in or about 1748. His grandfather is stated to have been a clergyman in Glamorganshire, and his great-grandfather, Erasmus Lewis [q. v.] He was educated at Armagh and is said to have been dandled as an infant in the arms of Don John in the ‘Chances.’ Later he was Jeremy, the sleeping boy, in ‘Barnaby Brittle,’ and was first called Mr. in the playbill when he acted Colonel Briton in Mrs. Centlivre's comedy, the ‘Wonder.’ Under Dawson Lewis appeared (1770–71) at Capel Street Theatre, Dublin; another member of the company, Miss Leeson, subsequently became his wife. On 26 Feb. 1770 he was Sir Harry Newburgh in Hugh Kelly's ‘False Delicacy.’ Hastings in ‘Jane Shore’ followed. On 19 Feb. 1771 he was Belcour in the ‘West Indian,’ a part he made wholly his own. On 4 May 1772 Tate Wilkinson, who speaks of him as a sprightly lad, saw him play at Crow Street Theatre Romeo to the Juliet of Mrs. Sparks, and on 28 May Young Belfield in the ‘Brothers.’ Lewis sprang rapidly to the front of popularity in Dublin, supporting, says Hitchcock, ‘a very extensive and varied line of business in tragedy and comedy with great ability’ (View of the Irish Stage, ii. 207), and he is stated to have conducted himself ‘with so much good sense and propriety as to defy malice to point out a blemish’ (ib. ii. 236).
On 15 Oct. 1773, in his favourite character of Belcour in the ‘West Indian,’ Lewis made his first appearance at Covent Garden, where he was well received and sprang into immediate repute. During the season he played Posthumus, Aimwell, Lothario, Florizel in the ‘Winter's Tale,’ Prince of Wales in the ‘First Part of King Henry IV,’ Antonio in ‘Don Sebastian,’ Valentine in ‘Love for Love,’ Petruchio, Lorenzo in the
