Thomas Lewis

Thomas Lewis (c. 1679 – 22 November 1736) of Soberton, Hampshire, was a British Tory and then Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1708 and 1736 and a member of the Lewis Of the Van Family.

Life

Lewis was the eldest surviving son of Richard Lewis, MP, of Edington and Corsham, Wiltshire and his wife Mary James. He attended Salisbury School and succeeded his father in 1706, inheriting estates at Corsham in Wiltshire and The Van in Glamorgan.

He married firstly Anna Maria Curll, daughter of Sir Walter Curll, 1st Baronet of Soberton. She died in 1709 and he married secondly in February 1710, Elizabeth Turnour of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, with whom he had a daughter. He lived at Soberton, which he inherited by his first marriage.

Lewis was returned as a Tory Member of Parliament (MP) for Whitchurch on 5 May 1708, but was unseated on petition on 21 December 1708. At the 1710 British general election, he was returned as MP for Winchester. He was then returned for Hampshire at the 1713 British general election.

Lewis died on 22 November 1736, leaving his estates, which were heavily encumbered, to his only grandchild, Other Windsor, 4th Earl of Plymouth, with remainder successively to Sir Robert and Horace Walpole. Notes from the parlimentary hearings show that family seat of St Fagans maintained previous entail conditions and was placed into a 2000 year testamentary trust.