Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lewis, Samuel (d.1865)

by Gordon Goodwin

LEWIS, SAMUEL, the elder (d. 1865), publisher, carried on business successively in Aldersgate Street, Hatton Garden, and Finsbury Place South, London, under the style of ‘S. Lewis & Co.’ He is probably the Samuel Lewis who died at 19 Compton Terrace, Islington, on 28 Feb. 1865.

His best known publications, edited by Joseph Haydn [q. v.], were:

1. ‘A Topographical Dictionary of England … and the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, and Man … with Maps … and a Plan of London,’ &c., 4 vols. 4to, London, 1831 (7th edit. 1849). With the third edition (1835) was issued a supplementary volume, comprising a ‘View of the Representative History of England, with 116 engraved Plans.’
2. ‘A Topographical Dictionary of Wales … with an Appendix, describing the Electoral Boundaries of the several Boroughs,’ &c., 2 vols. 4to, London, 1833 (4th edit. 1849).
3. ‘A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland … with an Appendix describing the Electoral Boundaries of the several Boroughs,’ &c., 2 vols. 4to, London, 1837 (2nd edit. 1842). It was severely criticised in the ‘Dublin University Magazine’ (xii. 226–32).
4. ‘Lewis's Atlas, comprising the Counties of Ireland and a general Map of the Kingdom,’ fol. London, 1837.
5. ‘An Atlas, comprising Maps of the several Counties [of England and Wales], divided into Unions, and of the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, and Man,’ 4to, London, 1842.

His son, Samuel Lewis the younger (d. 1862),wrote:

1. ‘The History and Topography of the Parish of Saint Mary, Islington,’ 4to, London, 1842, founded upon John Nelson's work (1811).
2. ‘Islington as it was and as it is,’ 8vo, London, 1854.
3. ‘The Book of English Rivers. An Account of the Rivers of England and Wales,’ 8vo, London, 1855.

He died at Priory Villas, Canonbury, on 4 May 1862, having married Jane Burn Suter in 1859.

[Brit. Mus. Cat.; wills at Somerset House.]

G. G.