John Lewger

John Lewger ( – ) was an English colonist in the Province of Maryland. His property, St. John's, was where the first General Assembly met. He was the first Secretary of the Province, among many other titles. By filing a declaration in 1637, Lewger is considered the father of the Maryland Bar Association.

Early life John Lewger was born in London, England, and educated at Trinity College, Oxford, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in 1619. At college, he befriended William Chillingworth, an Anglican who would convert to Roman Catholicism (and then back to Anglicanism). He joined Trinity College's faculty in 1632. On 30 December 1637, Lewger issued a Brief in the Provincial Court. and became a Roman Catholic priest, serving as his friend, Cecil Calvert's, chaplain. John Junior remained at St. John's Freehold, where Margaret Brent appealed for voting rights in January 1647/48 (O.S./N.S.).

A 2014 book, Ghost Walls: The Story of a 17th-Century Colonial Homestead by Sally M. Walker provides a fictional account of Lewger and St. John's.