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. Early life Lewis was born at Audley, his family's plantation in Clarke County, Virginia, in 1837. He was a son of Lorenzo Lewis (1803–1847) and Esther Maria (née Cox) Lewis (1804–1885). His siblings included George Washington Lewis (1829–1885), Lawrence Fielding Lewis (1834–1857), John Redman Coxe Lewis (1834–1898), and Henry Llewellyn Dangerfield Lewis (1841–1893). Lewis's 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.