Born: 1584, c14th July.

Place of Birth: Rockingham Castle, Northamptonshire.

Died: 5th January 1653 at Rockingham Castle, Rockingham. Buried Rockingham Church.

Parents: Sir Edward and Anne Watson, daughter of Kenelm Digby of Stoke Dry, Rutland.

Marriages: 1. Catherine Sophia Bertie in 1609, daughter of Peregrine Bertie, Baron Willoughby de Eresby. 2. Eleanor Manners daughter of Sir George Manners in 1620.

Children:  Grace 1623, Anne 1625, Frances 1626, Elizabeth 1627, Eleanor 1629 and Edward 2nd Baron Rockingham 1630.

Occupation: 1st Baron Rockingham and Politician. Sat in the House of Commons between 1621 and 1624.

Notes:  Lewis attended Magdalen College, Oxford, but did not graduate. He was admitted to the Middle Temple as a student in 1601. He was knighted at Grafton on 19th August 1608. He succeeded to Rockingham Castle, on the death of his father on 1st March 1617. He later acquired the fee of the castle and its land from the crown. Prior to this, the castle and lands had been leased from the crown.

In 1624 he was re-elected MP for Lincoln. Lewis was Sheriff of Northamptonshire from 1632 to 1633. In 1633, he aquired the title of hereditary Master of the Buckhounds, which was a Serjeanty associated with the Manor of Little Weldon. In 1638 he became Verderer of Rockingham and Brigstock.

Lewis served the King during the Civil War, being created Baron Rockingham on 29th January 1645.

Lewis's first wife Catherine, died in childbirth, 15th February, 1610. She was buried at Spilsby, Linclonshire.