{{Short description|English colonial administrator and writer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = <!-- defaults to article title when left blank --> | image = Title page of Relation of Maryland 1635 relationofmaryla00unse 0007.jpg | alt = Title page of a 1635 book | caption = Title page of ''A Relation of Maryland'' | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = 1602 | birth_place = London, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1665|1602}} | death_place = London | other_names = Lewgar<ref name="mdhistmag">Krugler, John D. "'Mr. Secretary': John Lewgar, St. John’s Freehold, and Early Maryland". 2015. Maryland Historical Magazine. Vol. 110, No 1. https://www.mdhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/MHMSpring2015.pdf</ref> | notable_works = {{Unbulleted list|''A Relation of Maryland''<ref name="mdhistmag" />|''Liber Z''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://guide.msa.maryland.gov/pages/item.aspx?ID=S1071-1|title=Maryland State Archives - Guide to Government Records|website=guide.msa.maryland.gov}}</ref>|''Erasmus Junior''<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle= Lewgar, John |volume= 33 |last= Cooper |first= Thompson |author-link= Thompson Cooper |page= 167-168 |year= |short=1}}</ref>|''Erasmus Senior''}} | occupation = Minister, secretary, clerk, attorney, councilor, priest {{Infobox officeholder | embed = yes | office = Secretary of the Province | term_start = 1637 | term_end = 1644 }} | signature = Signature of John Lewger (1602–1665).png | signature_type = | signature_size = | signature_alt = }} '''John Lewger''' ({{born in|1602}} – {{died in|1665}}) 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.<ref name="MSBA">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r7w8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA79|title=Transactions of the Annual Meeting of the Maryland State Bar Association, vol. 2|publisher=Maryland State Bar Association|year=1897|page=29}}</ref>
==Early life== John Lewger was born in London, England, and educated at Trinity College, Oxford, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in 1619.<ref name="MSA">{{Cite web | url=http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/000800/000806/html/806bio.html |title= Archives of Maryland (Biographical Series) John Lewger (1602–1665)| publisher=Maryland State Archives | access-date = October 24, 2014}}</ref> At college, he befriended William Chillingworth, an Anglican who would convert to Roman Catholicism (and then back to Anglicanism).<ref name="mdhistmag" /> Lewger also met Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, a connection that would serve him well.<ref name="HSMC">{{cite web |url= http://www.hsmcdigshistory.org/research/history/john-lewger/|title=John Lewger (1602–1665) |website=Historic St. Mary's City |publisher= Historic St. Mary’s City|access-date=October 24, 2014}}</ref> He joined Trinity College's faculty in 1632.<ref name="MSA"/>
Although Lewger was an ordained Church of England minister, he converted to Catholicism in 1635.<ref name="HSMC"/>
==In Maryland== Lewger arrived with his wife, Anne, and nine-year-old son, John (Junior), in Maryland on 28 November 1637 aboard the ''{{sic|Unitie}}''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mdroots.thinkport.org/library/johnlewger.asp|title=Exploring Maryland's Roots: Library: John Lewger (1602-1665)|website=mdroots.thinkport.org}}</ref> On 30 December 1637, Lewger issued a Brief in the Provincial Court.<ref name="MSBA"/> He simultaneously held several provincial offices, including Commissioner in Causes Testamentary, Surveyor General, Collector and Receiver of Rents, and Justice of St. Mary's County.<ref name="MSA"/> While he was Secretary, Lewger acted as counsel to Lord Baltimore.<ref name="MSBA"/>
thumb|Remains of Lewger's house, St. John's In 1638, he developed the St. John's house and plantation in St. Mary's, then Maryland's capital.<ref name="HSMC"/> He served in the Maryland House of Burgesses (the forerunner of the Maryland General Assembly) from 1637 to 1642,<ref name="MSA"/> of which he was made a clerk.<ref name="MSBA"/> It was during this period that his wife died. In 1644, he was made Secretary of the Province.{{cn|date=August 2025}} In this latter role, during the absence of Governor Leonard Calvert, he dispatched a military party to negotiate peace with the Susquehannock tribe.<ref name="MSBA"/>
When St. Mary's town was attacked by Richard Ingle in 1645, Lewger's home was ransacked and he was taken prisoner and transported back to England. After a stint as a prisoner, he was released and returned to Maryland.<ref name="HSMC"/> He served in the Upper House (the forerunner of the Maryland Senate) from 1646 to 1647.<ref name="MSA"/>
During the English Civil War, whilst King Charles I of England was held prisoner by Parliament, Lewger was directed to collect and safeguard the King's private possessions in Maryland.<ref name="MSBA"/> Lewger returned to Maryland some time after October, 1645.<ref name="mdhistmag" />
==Return to England== Some time in 1647,<ref name="mdhistmag" /> John resettled to England with his daughters Ann (II) and Cecily (or Cecelia),<ref>[https://www.hsmcdigshistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Stone.pdf "Society, Housing, and Architecture in Early Maryland: John Lewger's St. John's" (dissertation). Stone, Gary Wheeler. 1982. University of Pennsylvania.]</ref> 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.).<ref name="mdhistmag" /> As a priest, Lewger wrote several religious works in the 1650s, including ''Erasmus Junior'' and ''Erasmus Senior''.<ref name="mdhistmag" /> He died during the Great Plague of London in 1665 and was interred in a mass grave.<ref name="MSBA"/><ref>{{ODNBweb|id=16563|title=Lewgar, John|first=Michael|last=Mullett|author-link=Michael Mullett}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uc0SBAAAQBAJ|title=Ghost Walls: The Story of a 17th-Century Colonial Homestead|first=Sally M.|last=Walker|date=1 October 2014|publisher=Carolrhoda Books|isbn=978-1-4677-4625-0 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://www.hsmcdigshistory.org/pdf/Secretary-Lewger.pdf Ph.D. thesis on Lewger hosted at Historic Saint Mary's City]{{deadlink|date=July 2025}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewger, John}} Category:1602 births Category:1665 deaths Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford Category:Fellows of Trinity College, Oxford Category:St. Mary's City, Maryland Category:Maryland lawyers Category:Lawyers from London Category:Secretaries of state of Maryland Category:Infectious disease deaths in England Category:Maryland attorneys general Category:Maryland state senators Category:Members of the Maryland House of Delegates Category:17th-century English Roman Catholic priests Category:17th-century English Anglican priests Category:Anglican priest converts to Roman Catholicism Category:17th-century deaths from plague (disease) Category:People of the English Civil War Category:Politicians from London Category:Writers from Maryland Category:17th-century Maryland politicians