Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lewis, Hubert
LEWIS, HUBERT (1825–1884), jurist, born on 23 March 1825, was the second son of Walter Clapham Lewis of Upper Norland House, Kensington, Middlesex. He was educated privately until, in December 1844, he entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he obtained a scholarship, and graduated B.A. in 1848. He entered at the Middle Temple in May 1851, and after obtaining two certificates of honour was called to the bar in 1854. He practised conveyancing and equity, first at Bradford in Yorkshire (where he went the northern circuit and attended the West Riding sessions), and subsequently in London. He died unmarried on 6 March 1884 at Margate, and was buried in the cemetery there.
Lewis was the author of the following legal works: 1. ‘Principles of Conveyancing,’ London, 1863, 8vo. 2. ‘Principles of Equity Drafting,’ London, 1865, 8vo. 3. The sixth edition of Goldsmith's ‘Equity,’ London, 8vo, was almost entirely rewritten by him in 1870. 4. ‘The Ancient Laws of Wales,’ London, 1889, 8vo, published posthumously, under the editorship of Prof. J. E. Lloyd of Aberystwith; this work, which practically occupied the whole leisure of Lewis's lifetime, was prepared with the view of proving that the English constitution and the law of real property were largely based upon or borrowed from early British institutions, which he reconstructed out of material found in the Welsh code of Howel the Good and in ‘The Record of Carnarvon,’ or out of the evidence of place-names, and some very inaccurate etymological reasoning based thereon. Lewis also left behind him in manuscript some works on ‘Local Nomenclature’ and kindred subjects, but these have not been published.
[Private communication from the family; preface to the Ancient Laws of Wales.]