View source for Samuel Lewis (barrister)

[[File:Heroessamuellewis (1).gif|thumb|Sir '''Samuel Lewis (barrister)''', a founder of modern Sierra Leone]]
Sir '''Samuel Lewis''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|KCMG}} (13 November 1843 – 9 July 1903) was a [[Sierra Leone]]an [[Sierra Leone Creole|Krio]] mayor of [[Freetown]] and lawyer. Lewis was the first [[West Africa]]n ever knighted and was the third Sierra Leonean to qualify as a barrister. Lewis was the first mayor of Freetown after the [[Freetown Municipal Council]] was established. In 1896, he was made a knight, the first West African to achieve such an honour,<ref name=Fryer>[[Peter Fryer]], ''[[Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain]]'', London: [[Pluto Press]], 1984, p. 437.</ref> a year after he had been appointed mayor.
==Background==
Lewis was one of nine children (eight sons and a daughter) of a [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] Recaptive merchant (in real estate and agricultural products) '''Elderman William Lewis of Oxford Street''' in the Freetown Municipal Council, and his wife Fanny. His siblings - Ebenezer Albert, Christopher Bright Lewis, William Jr, John, Josiah William, Emmanuel, Jacob and Caroline Matilda Lumpkin - were all political leaders and heads of the colonial government of Freetown. His parents were both liberated Africans from [[Egba people|Egba]] in south western Nigeria.<ref>''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]''.</ref>  Lewis travelled to England by way of the relationship between his father William and the captain of a merchant ship that was shipping goods from Freetown to England. He is buried in [[Acton Cemetery]] in West London, England.<ref>{{cite web |title=Acton Cemetery. |url=https://www.ealing.gov.uk/info/201036/deaths/1570/acton_cemetery |website=Ealing Borough Council |publisher=Ealing Borough Council |access-date=24 January 2023}}</ref>
==Political career and legal luminary==
Lewis went to England in 1866.<ref name=Fryer /> He entered the [[Middle Temple]], and then the chambers of [[Samuel Danks Waddy]]. He moved on to a chancery chambers, and was [[called to the bar]] in 1871.<ref name=Fryer /> He returned to Freetown in 1872.<ref>{{ODNBweb|id=72676|title=Lewis, Sir Samuel|first=John D.|last= Hargreaves}}</ref>
Lewis and other Eldermen who formed the Freetown Municipal Council were able to convince the Colonial Government with civil protest to relinquish power and the day-to-day running of the Municipal Council by Black Africans. In 1882, he was elected as a member to the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?year=1882;smode=advanced;startDoc=1|access-date=2021-05-17|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>
==Sources==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071210051345/http://www.sierra-leone.org/heroes3.html Short biographies of Sierra Leonean 'heroes']
==Notes==
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[[Category:1843 births]]
[[Category:1903 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Freetown]]
[[Category:Sierra Leone Creole people]]
[[Category:Mayors of Freetown]]
[[Category:Fourah Bay College alumni]]
[[Category:Sierra Leonean knights]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George]]
[[Category:People educated at the Sierra Leone Grammar School]]
[[Category:Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate judges]]
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