Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lewis, Titus

1436938Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 33 — Lewis, Titus1893Rees M. Jenkin Jones

LEWIS, TITUS (1773–1811), baptist minister, son of Lewis Thomas, baptist minister at Cilfowyr, Pembrokeshire, was born at Cilgerran on 21 Feb. 1773. On 1 June 1794 he and thirty-two others were admitted as church members at Blaen-y-waun. In January 1798 he was set apart for the ministry by prayer and the laying on of hands of the elders. In 1800 he married Miss Howard of Carmarthen, and soon after removed to take charge of the baptist church in that town. He worked hard and travelled much, visiting the churches both in North and South Wales. He engaged in frequent controversy on the subject of baptism, exhibiting, according to his biographer, more of the fortiter in re than the suaviter in modo. He wrote simply and naturally. His last sermon was preached at the quarterly meeting of the denomination, held at Cwmifor on 1 Jan. 1811, and his death took place on 1 May of the same year. His remains were interred in what is now the burying-ground of the baptist church at Carmarthen.

He published besides tracts the following works (all in Welsh): 1. ‘Mawl i'r Oen a laddwyd’ (a hymn-book), Caerfyrddin, 1802. 2. ‘Testament Newydd ein Harglwydd,’ &c. (a New Testament for the Sunday school), Carmarthen, 1802, 12mo. 3. ‘Geirlyfr Cymraeg a Saesneg’ (a Welsh and English Dictionary), Carmarthen, 1805, 8vo; 2nd edit. Carmarthen, 1815, 8vo. 4. ‘Llyfr Rhyfeddodau, neu Amlygiadau o Waredigaethau Rhyfeddol Duw i'w Weision’ (‘A Book of Wonders, or Examples of God's Wonderful Deliverances of his Servants’), Carmarthen, 1808, 8vo. 5. ‘Hanes Wladol a Chrefyddol Prydain Fawr’ (‘The Political and Religious History of Great Britain’), Carmarthen, 1810, 8vo; 2nd edit., with introduction by the Rev. Owen Williams, and edited and continued from 1800 to 1850 by Dr. John Emlyn Jones, Carmarthen, 1855–7. 6. ‘Esponiad ar y Cyffelybiaethau a roddir yn yr Ysgrythyrau Sanctaidd i Dduw 'r Tad’ (based chiefly on the ‘Tropologia, or Key to open Scripture Metaphors,’ by Benjamin Keach [q. v.]), Carmarthen, 1811, 12mo; another edition, 8vo, Carnarvon [1820?]. 7. ‘A Translation of Dr. Gill on the Gospels and Book of Acts,’ Carmarthen, 1811, 12mo; 2nd edit., edited and completed by Dr. J. Emlyn Jones, Cardiff, 1854. In this work Joseph Harris and Christmas Evans were associated with Lewis.

[Jones's Geiriadur Bywgraffyddol, ii. 161–3; Spurrell's Carmarthen, p. 136; Essay on Welsh Periodical Literature in Cardiff Eisteddfod Transactions, 1883; Brit. Mus. Cat.; information from the librarian of the Swansea Free Library.]

R. J. J.