Biography

Lewis Weston Dillwyn (1778-1855), naturalist, MP and pottery manufacturer, was born on 21 August 1778 at St Thomas's Square, Hackney. In 1798 he went to Dover and there began his study of plants. He became a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1800 and subsequently reported to it on his observations. In 1802 Dillwyn's father bought the Cambrian pottery at Swansea, placing him at its head, and in 1803 he moved there from Walthamstow. He began publishing his principal botanical work, the Natural History of British Confervae in 1802, and in 1805 he and Dawson Turner published the Botanist's Guide through England and Wales. Dillwyn was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1804. Dillwyn was returned in 1832 to the first parliament to sit after the Reform Act as member for Glamorgan, of which he had been a magistrate for some years, and high sheriff in 1818. The freedom of the borough of Swansea was presented to him in 1834, and from 1835 to 1840 he served as alderman and mayor. He died at his home, Sketty Hall, Glamorgan, on 31 August 1855.

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