Dr David Lewis

Dr David Lewis

Dr David Lewis (d.1584) was a local man who achieved fame by becoming an advisor to Queen Elizabeth I and was appointed first principal of Jesus College, Oxford.

It is from Dr Lewis that the Lewis Chapel takes its name.  He was the eldest son of Sir Lewis ap John (alias Wallis), Vicar of Abergavenny, and chose to take his father’s Christian name after the Welsh practice. 

He was a man of his age and one of great academic distinction. He was elected a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, in 1541, and was awarded the degree of Doctor of Civil Law. He was one of the founders and first principal of Jesus College, as well as being appointed Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, Master of St Catherine’s Hospital, London, and one of the Masters in Chancery. He was MP for Monmouthshire in 1554. He died in 1584 in London and his body brought to Abergavenny to be buried beneath a tomb that he had commissioned from the Herefordshire sculptor, John Gideon, during his lifetime.