Richards, Lewis

Richards, Lewis, a Baptist minister, was born in 1752, in the parish of Llanbadarn Fawr, Cardiganshire, South Wales. At the age of nineteen years he made a public profession of religion, and joined a society of Independents and studied for a short time in Lady Huntingdon's College. He then came to America, intending to pursue his studies at the Orphan House in Georgia. He was ordained in Charleston in 1777, and after traveling about a year in various parts of South Carolina and Georgia he removed to Northampton County, Va. In 1784 he became the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Baltimore. He continued alone in this pastorate till 1815, when Rev. E.J. Reis was elected copastor. Mr. Richards resigned his charge in 1818, but continued a member of the Church until his death, Feb. 1, 1832. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulp. 6:201.