Lewis, John Travers

First Bishop of Ontario; Fourth Metropolitan of All Canada.

John Travers Lewis was born in Cork, Ireland in 1825. He obtained B.A. from Trinity College, Dublin in 1847, and was ordained deacon in 1848 in Cambridge. He was ordained priest in 1849, and was curate of Newton Butler in County Fermanah, Ireland until 1850. He was an S.P.G. Missionary in West Hawkesbury, Ontario until 1854, when he became the Rector of Brockville. He was consecrated Bishop of Ontario in 1862. He was active in getting the British Association for the Advancement of Science to meet in Montreal and helped to found the Women's Auxiliary in 1885. He married Ada Maria Leigh in 1889, and was elected President of the House of Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada, at Montreal, thus becoming Metropolitan of Canada and Archbishop of Ontario. He resigned this office in 1900, and passed away aboard the S.S. Menominee en route to England in 1901.

He held multiple honourary degrees from multiple colleges, including: LL.D. (1856), M.A., B.D., D.D. (all 1862) Trinity College, Dublin; LL.D. (1857), University of Trinity College, Toronto; D.C.L. (1858), D.D. (1895) University of Bishop's College, Quebec; and D.D. (1901), Oxford University, England.