Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thomas, Lewis
THOMAS, LEWIS (fl. 1587–1619), preacher, born in 1568, was a native of Glamorganshire, or, according to another account, of Radnorshire. He was educated at Oxford, where he matriculated, under the name of Lewis Evans, from Gloucester Hall, 11 Dec. 1584, and graduated B.A. from Brasenose College on 15 Feb. 1586–7, being then described as ‘Lewis Evans alias Thomas.’ He took orders soon after, and was eventually beneficed ‘in his native county of Glamorgan and elsewhere’ (Wood). It is supposed that he was alive in 1619, but the date of his death is unknown.
He was the author of the following two volumes of sermons: 1. ‘Seaven Sermons, or the Exercises of Seven Sabbaths; together with a Short Treatise upon the Commandments.’ The first edition was issued in 1599 (Arber, Transcript of the Stationers' Register, iii. 140), but no copy of it is now known. A fourth edition appeared in 1602, and a seventh and tenth, printed in black letter, in 1610 and 1619 respectively (Brit. Mus. Cat.), while another edition is mentioned as issued in 1630 (Wood). 2. ‘Demegoriai. Certaine Lectures upon Sundry Portions of Scripture,’ London, 1600, 8vo (cf. Arber, op. cit. iii. 175). This is dedicated to Sir Thomas Egerton, lord keeper of the great seal, who was one of Thomas's first patrons.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ii. 277, Fasti ii. 236; Clark's Register of the University of Oxford, iii. 139; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714, s.v. ‘Evans’ and ‘Thomas;’ Williams's Eminent Welshmen, p. 487.]