Edward Parke Custis Lewis

Edward Parke Custis Lewis (February 7, 1837 – September 3, 1892) was a Confederate Army colonel, lawyer, legislator, and diplomat who served as United States Minister to Portugal from 1885 to 1889.

Lewis was born at Audley, his family's plantation in Clarke County, Virginia, in 1837. He was the son of Lorenzo Lewis (1803–1847) and Esther Maria Coxe Lewis (1804–1885). His paternal grandparents were Lawrence Lewis, a nephew of George Washington, and Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis, a granddaughter of Martha Washington. His maternal grandparents were Dr. John Redman Coxe, a Philadelphia physician who was a pioneer in vaccination, and Sarah Cox, whose sister Rachel Cox married the inventor John Stevens.

Lewis was educated at the University of Virginia and studied law, but pursued life as a planter at his Virginia estate. During the Civil War, he joined the Confederate States Army, eventually rising to the rank of Colonel. He served as aide-de-camp under General John R. Chambliss and as brigade inspector under General William Henry Fitzhugh Lee (his second cousin, since Lee's maternal grandfather George Washington Parke Custis was his great-uncle). He was captured and made prisoner of war twice, confined for a total of fifteen months at Fort Delaware and Camp Chase. After the war, he returned to his Virginia plantation.

Lewis was first married on March 23, 1858 to Lucy Balmain Ware (1839 – September 1866) of Berryville, Virginia, and they had five children, though only one, Lucy Ware Lewis (born 1866), survived past infancy. After the death of his first wife, he moved to Hoboken, New Jersey and opened a law office, which he maintained until his death.

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