Family Lewis was the first-born child of Matthew and Frances Maria Sewell Lewis. His father, Matthew Lewis, was the son of William Lewis and Jane Gregory, was born in England in 1750, and attended
Westminster School before proceeding to
Christ Church, Oxford, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1769 and his master's in 1772. During his time at Westminster, Lewis's parents separated. Mrs Lewis moved to France in this period; while there, she was in continuous correspondence with Matthew. The correspondence between Matthew and his mother consisted of discussion regarding the poor state of his mother's welfare and estate. That same year, Lewis was appointed Chief Clerk in the
War Office. The following year, he married Frances Maria Sewell, a young woman who was very popular at court. She was the third daughter of the senior judge Sir
Thomas Sewell and was one of eight children born in his first marriage to Catherine Heath. Her family, like Lewis's, had connections with
Jamaica. As a child, she spent her time in
Ottershaw. In December 1775, in addition to his War Office post, Lewis became the Deputy
Secretary at War. With one exception, he was the first to hold both positions and receive both salaries contemporaneously. Lewis owned considerable property in Jamaica, within four miles of Savanna-la-Mer, or
Savanna-la-Mar, which was hit by a devastating earthquake and hurricane in 1779. His son would later inherit this property. In addition to Matthew Gregory Lewis, Matthew and Frances had three other children: Maria, Barrington, and Sophia Elizabeth. On 23 July 1781, when Matthew was six and his youngest sister one-and-a-half years old, Frances left her husband, taking the music master, Samuel Harrison, as her lover. During their estrangement, Frances lived under a different name, Langley, in order to hide her location from her husband, although he still learned of her whereabouts. On 3 July 1782, Frances gave birth to a child. That same day, hearing of the birth, her estranged husband returned. Afterwards, he began to arrange a legal separation from his wife. After formally accusing his wife of adultery through the
Consistory Court of the
Bishop of London on 27 February 1783, he petitioned the
House of Lords for permission to bring about a bill of divorce. However, these bills were rarely granted and it was rejected when brought to a vote. Consequently, Matthew and Frances remained married until his death in 1812. Frances, though withdrawing from society and temporarily moving to France, was always supported financially by her husband and then later, her son. She later returned to London and then finished her life at
Leatherhead, Frances and her son remained quite close, with her taking on the responsibility of helping him with his literary career. She even became a published author, much to her son's dislike. Lewis had a tumultuous relationship with the mistresses his father took on, always siding with his exiled mother in family disputes. His rudeness to such women brought him to the perpetual verge of disinheritance, a threat commonly held over his head and sometimes acted on throughout his lifetime. Lewis's sisters (especially Lady Lushington) often suggested edits for Lewis's work aimed at making them more acceptable to the public, and went so far as to compose their own drafts of his plays. He rejected all such suggestions. Lewis was also in a long term relationship with William Kelly, brother of
Attorney General for England and Wales Fitzroy Kelly.
Education Lewis began his education at a preparatory school called
Marylebone Seminary under the Rev. Dr
John Fountayne,
Dean of York. Fountayne was a friend of both the Lewis and Sewell families. There Lewis learned Latin, Greek, French, writing, arithmetic, drawing, dancing, and fencing. He and his classmates were permitted to converse only in French throughout the day. Like many of his classmates, Lewis used the Marylebone Seminary as a stepping stone, proceeding from there to Westminster School, like his father, at the age of eight. There he acted in the Town Boys' Play as Falconbridge in
King John and then My Lord Duke in
James Townley's farce,
High Life Below Stairs. Again like his father, he entered Christ Church, Oxford on 27 April 1790 at the age of 15. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1794 and earned a master's degree from the same college in 1797. Lewis frequently complained about the obligation to learn classical languages at Oxford, and spent much of the actual time of his degree abroad in Germany working as a German diplomat. It was during this period he became acquainted with Goethe. There Lewis produced in ten weeks his romance
Ambrosio or
The Monk, which was published anonymously in the summer of the following year and immediately gained him celebrity. However, some passages were such that about a year after its appearance an injunction to restrain its sale was obtained. In the second edition, Lewis cited himself as the author and as a Member of Parliament (for
Hindon in
Wiltshire), and removed what he assumed were the objectionable passages, but the work retained much of its horrific character.
Lord Byron in
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers wrote of "Wonder-working Lewis, Monk or Bard / Who fain wouldst make
Parnassus a churchyard; / Even Satan's self with thee might dread to dwell, / And in thy skull discern a deeper hell." The
Marquis de Sade also praised Lewis in his essay "Reflections on the Novel". , 1809|220px On 22 March 1802
Harriett Litchfield appeared in a Gothic
monodrama at
The Haymarket called
The Captive by Lewis. This recounts the story of a wife imprisoned by her husband. The stage directions included details designed to improve the Gothic situation. Litchfield was complimented for her delivery "in the most perfect manner", but she plays a woman denied any human contact and kept in a modern dungeon. She is not mad but realises that she will soon be a maniac. The play is thought to have been suggested by one of
Mary Wollstonecraft's books. It was said that even the staff of the theatre left in horror. The play was staged only once. Lewis held two estates in Jamaica: Cornwall estate in
Westmoreland Parish and Hordley estate in
Saint Thomas Parish. According to the slave registers, Hordley was co-owned with George Scott and Matthew Henry Scott and their shares were purchased by Lewis in 1817, thus making him sole owner of more than 500 slaves. On 18 August 1816, the
year without a summer, Lewis visited
Percy Bysshe Shelley and
Mary Shelley in Geneva, Switzerland, where he recounted five ghost stories, one of them a poem written for the Princess of Wales, which Shelley recorded in his "Journal at Geneva (including ghost stories) and on return to England, 1816". Lewis visited his estates in Jamaica in 1818. During his visit, he saw William Adamson's production of
Adelgitha, and complained about the performance of
John Castello, the "West Indian Roscius" who played the role of Lothair. He died of
yellow fever on board ship whilst sailing back and was buried at sea.
The Life and Correspondence of M. G. Lewis, in two volumes, was published in 1839.
The Effusions of Sensibility, his first novel, was never completed. ==Reception of his work==