One name.
Two harbours of history.

There are two. Lewes in East Sussex, England is the county town of East Sussex, about 8 miles north-east of Brighton and roughly an hour from London by train, set in a gap in the South Downs. Lewes in Delaware, USA sits on Delaware Bay at Cape Henlopen, about two hours from Philadelphia and Baltimore, at the western end of the Cape May–Lewes Ferry.

Both towns say it the same way: two syllables, LOO-iss, rhyming roughly with “bruise” plus a soft ending. It is not “Lewis” spelled oddly, though it sounds close, and it is not “Loos”.

Lewes Bonfire on 5 November, the largest and most elaborate bonfire-night celebration in Britain, run by the town’s bonfire societies. Also Lewes Castle, the Anne of Cleves House, Glyndebourne opera a few miles away, and its position on the South Downs Way. Officials ask non-residents not to attend Bonfire Night, and trains stop calling at Lewes from about 5pm that evening.

Calling itself “the First Town in the First State” — the site of Delaware’s first European settlement, the Dutch colony of Zwaanendael, founded in 1631. Also Cape Henlopen State Park, the calm bay beach, the Cape May–Lewes Ferry, and a historic district of 122 contributing buildings including the Cannonball House, which still carries a British cannonball from 1813.

By name only. Lewes, Delaware was named after Lewes in Sussex during the English colonial period, in the same wave of naming that gave Delaware its Sussex and Kent counties. There is no institutional link, no twinning arrangement, and the two towns are unrelated in every respect except the word.

If you want castles, chalk downland, English pubs and an easy day trip from London or Brighton, that is East Sussex. If you want a bay beach, a state park, a ferry crossing and American colonial history, that is Delaware. They serve entirely different trips, and this site covers both separately so you do not end up reading about the wrong one.