Background
Lewis was the son of John Lewis and Anne Frankland, daughter of Sir Thomas Frankland, 5th Baronet. His father died in 1797.
Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom
Lewis was the son of John Lewis and Anne Frankland, daughter of Sir Thomas Frankland, 5th Baronet. His father died in 1797.
Born in Great Ormond Street, London, he was educated at Eton College, and attended Christ Church, Oxford without taking a degree.
Lewis was an improving landlord of the family estates in Radnorshire, and was appointed High Sheriff of Radnorshire for 1804-1805. Lewis was an Member of Parliament for most years between 1812 and 1855, for Ennis (1826–1828), for Radnorshire (1828–1834) and for Radnor Boroughs (1847–1855). Initially he was known as a Grenvillite.
While he supported the landowner and agricultural interest, his sympathy with Catholic emancipation made him unacceptable to the Tory ministry.
From 1821 onwards he took the advice of Lord Grenville to establish himself by means of public commission work. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1820.
On 24 June 1824, Lewis was appointed to the Royal Commission for inquiring into the nature and extent of the Instruction afforded by the several Institutions in Ireland established for the purpose of Education where he served with the other s: John Leslie Foster, William Grant, James Glassford and Anthony Richard Blake. As chairman (1834 - 1839) of the Poor Law Commission, he immediately clashed with Edwin Chadwick, who had been the driving force for Poor Law reform.
Chadwick was Secretary, not (as he had hoped) on the Board itself.
And Lewis with George Nicholls and John Shaw-Lefevre proceeded to overrule his views. Lewis chaired the commission on the Rebecca Riots, and the subsequent commission that abolished the turnpike trusts. He was created a baronet in 1846.
They had two children:
George Cornewall Lewis (21 April 1806 - 13 April 1863).
Gilbert Frankland Lewis (21 July 1808 - 18 December 1883).
Royal Society; 5th United Kingdom Parliament. 6th United Kingdom Parliament. 7th United Kingdom Parliament.
8th United Kingdom Parliament.
9th United Kingdom Parliament. 10th United Kingdom Parliament.
11th United Kingdom Parliament. 15th United Kingdom Parliament.
16th United Kingdom Parliament.
He was ambitious to enter national politics as a Member of Parliament, which he did in 1812 as a follower of Lord Bulkeley, at Beaumaris.