DILLWYN, Lewis Weston (1778-1855), of Penllergare, Glamorgan; later of Sketty Hall, Swansea, Glamorgan

Remembered by his colleagues in the Linnean Society as ‘thoroughly honourable and upright in all his dealings, a steady man of business, a liberal and active country gentleman, a warm friend, and a zealous and enlightened contributor to Natural Science’, Dillwyn made less impact in his parliamentary than in his scientific career.1Tribute by the Linnean Society, cited in A.R. Walker, ‘The Dillwyns as naturalists: Lewis Weston Dillwyn (1778-1855)’, Minerva, 11 (2003), 38. Descended from an old Breconshire family, his great-grandfather, William, a Quaker, emigrated to Pennsylvania around 1699. Born in Philadelphia, his father, also William (1743-1824), a merchant, moved to England in 1774, and played a prominent part in the anti-slavery campaign alongside Wilberforce and Clarkson, being one of the founder members of the Society for effecting the abolition of the slave trade in 1787.2http://arcw.llgc.org.uk/anw/get_collection.php?inst_id=1&coll_id=457&expand=; R.T. Jenkins, ‘Dillwyn, Dillwyn-Llewelyn, (Dillwyn) Venables-Llewelyn’, Welsh Biography Online [http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s-DILL-DIL-1650.html]; Gent. Mag. (1855), ii. 542. It was mooted that Dillwyn, who was born in Hackney,3B.D. Jackson, rev. A. Goldbloom, ‘Dillwyn, Lewis Weston’, Oxf. DNB [www.oxforddnb.com]. Several sources (for example, Gent. Mag. (1855), ii. 542) give his birthplace as Ipswich, but a document in the family archives confirms that he was born in Hackney: C.J. Howes, ‘The Dillwyn diaries 1817-1852, Buckland, and caves of Gower (South Wales)’, Proceedings of the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society (1988), xviii. 298. would join the business of his maternal grandfather, an eminent cooper in Wapping, but instead he worked variously in his father’s linen warehouse in London, with a silk mercer and draper in London, and was placed at a haberdashery business in Dover.4Public characters of all nations, consisting of biographical accounts of nearly three thousand eminent contemporaries (1823), i. 508; G. Gabb (ed.), Mr. Dillwyn’s diary (1998), 128; Western Mail, 31 Oct. 1873; R.L. Charles, ‘Lewis Weston Dillwyn and the Cambrian pottery’, in H.J. Randall & W. Rees (eds.), Diary of Lewis Weston Dillwyn (1963), 12; Jackson, ‘Dillwyn, Lewis Weston’. He preferred, however, to spend his time studying natural history, particularly botany, and became a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1800 and of the Royal Society in 1804. His most significant botanical works were the Natural History of British Confervae (1802-9), the first comprehensive study of British algae, and (as co-author) the Botanist’s Guide through England and Wales (1805). In the late 1810s and early 1820s he published on conchology, and in 1823 was offered an honorary D.C.L. by Oxford University, which he declined.5Jackson, ‘Dillwyn, Lewis Weston’; H.A. Hyde, ‘Lewis Weston Dillwyn as a botanist’, in H.J. Randall & W. Rees (eds.), Diary of Lewis Weston Dillwyn (1963), 6-7. Although a tribute to him at the 1848 British Association meeting as ‘the father of English botany’ was over-stated, it demonstrates the esteem in which he was held by scientific contemporaries, and Sir James Edward Smith named the parrot pea Dillwynia in his honour.6Walker, ‘The Dillwyns as naturalists’, 29-30; J.C. Loudon, An encyclopedia of plants (1841), 345. Dillwynia is an Australian plant of the pea family, commonly known as the parrot pea.

Alongside his scientific endeavours, Dillwyn, ‘a man of considerable energy’ with ‘a versatile and vigorous mind’,7Western Mail, 31 Oct. 1873; Cambrian journal (1855), ii. 300. had in 1802 become the manager of the Cambrian pottery in Swansea, in which his father had purchased a majority share, taking up residence in the town in 1803.8Charles, ‘Lewis Weston Dillwyn and the Cambrian pottery’, 12-13. The pottery became renowned for its high-quality porcelain, but reverted to the production of earthenware after 1817.9Jackson, ‘Dillwyn, Lewis Weston’; Gent. Mag. (1855), ii. 542. Dillwyn was also ‘actively involved’ with the launch of The Cambrian, the first newspaper published in Wales, in 1804.10Cambrian journal (1855), ii. 300. George Haynes, then his partner in the pottery, was the ‘driving force’ behind the newspaper’s establishment: S. Thomas, ‘The “Cambrian”: the first newspaper published in Wales’, Gower, 54 (2003), 59. He played an increasingly prominent part in Swansea’s civic life, serving on the commission established in 1809 for paving and lighting the town, being one of the founders of Swansea infirmary (1817), acting as a harbour trustee, and serving on the committee which in 1821 offered a £1,000 reward for devising a means of removing the noxious qualities of copper smoke (copper smelting being the principal local industry).11L. Miskell, ‘Urban power, industrialisation and political reform: Swansea elites in the town and region’, 1780-1850’, in R. Roth & R. Beachey (ed.), Who ran the cities? City elites and urban power structures in Europe and North America, 1750-1840 (2007), 28; Gent. Mag. (1855), ii. 542; E. Ball, ‘Glamorgan members during the Reform Bill period’, Morgannwg (1966), x. 20; The Times, 24 Nov. 1821. He played a key role in lobbying to have Swansea selected as the location for a new Bank of England branch in 1826.12L. Miskell, ‘Intelligent town’. An urban history of Swansea, 1780-1855 (2006), 67. He also served as a magistrate, and it was said to be largely due to his and Lord Cawdor’s exertions that the Welsh judicature was assimilated to that of England in 1830.13Gent. Mag. (1855), ii. 543.

In 1807 Dillwyn had to leave the Society of Friends after marrying a non-Quaker, Mary Adams, the illegitimate daughter and heiress of Colonel John Llewelyn of Penllergare.14Jackson, ‘Dillwyn, Lewis Weston’. On his father-in-law’s death in 1817, he temporarily gave up his business interests to concentrate on managing the extensive south Wales estates which his eldest son, John (who took the additional name of Llewelyn), would inherit when he came of age, and was an ‘acquisitive’ landlord, purchasing 223 houses in Swansea in 1825.15Charles, ‘Lewis Weston Dillwyn and the Cambrian pottery’, 12-13; Gent. Mag. (1855), ii. 543; L.W. Dillwyn diary, Appendix, Randall & Rees, Diary of Lewis Weston Dillwyn, 36; G. Gabb, ‘The Dillwyn family in Mumbles’, Gower, 51 (2000), 20. In 1883, John Dillwyn Llewelyn held almost 15,000 acres in Glamorgan, Breconshire and Carmarthernshire: J. Bateman, The great landowners of Great Britain and Ireland (4th edn., 1883), 274. Although he resumed his interest in the pottery in 1824, and became sole proprietor from 1831, he ‘appeared to identify his interests almost completely with the squirearchy’.16Charles, ‘Lewis Weston Dillwyn and the Cambrian pottery’, 12-13; Ball, ‘Glamorgan members’, 27. Having sub-let the pottery lease to his partners and sold his seven-tenths share in 1817, Dillwyn bought it back in 1824. This absorption within county society was reflected in his appointment as Glamorgan’s high sheriff in 1818, a position which debarred him from pursuing his intended parliamentary candidature for the Cardiff boroughs that year.17HP Commons, 1790-1820, ii. 501; R. Grant, The parliamentary history of Glamorgan 1542-1976 (1978), 132-7. He was pressed to offer again in 1820, but declined.18Grant, Parliamentary history of Glamorgan, 145. He did, however, campaign for the Whig Sir Christopher Cole and subsequently for Cole’s stepson, Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot, as candidates for the Glamorgan county seat, nominating the latter at his second successful contest in 1831.19Grant, Parliamentary history of Glamorgan, 137-53; L.W. Dillwyn, diary, 6 May 1831, Randall & Rees, Diary of Lewis Weston Dillwyn, 69. In 1831, when he relinquished the estate management to John, and installed his other surviving son Lewis Llewelyn as manager of the pottery, Dillwyn was able to renew his parliamentary ambitions.20Charles, ‘Lewis Weston Dillwyn and the Cambrian pottery’, 12-13. Although he was approached as a potential candidate for the new Swansea seat, Dillwyn announced his intention to offer for the new second county seat at the first post-reform election.21L.W. Dillwyn, diary, 12 Mar. 1831, 20 Apr. 1831, Randall & Rees, Diary of Lewis Weston Dillwyn, 68.

At the 1832 election Dillwyn was returned unopposed alongside Talbot, other potential candidates having withdrawn. He declared his support for equitable commutation of tithes, but announced his ‘strong dislike’ of the ballot and his opposition to further franchise extension. He argued that any alteration in the corn laws ‘would be the ruin of the country’: ‘our agricultural and commercial interests are so inseparably blended that neither can ever flourish while the other starves’. A prominent member of the local anti-slavery society, he supported the abolition of slavery, but cautioned against the ill effects of ‘any immediate or abrupt abolition’.22Cambrian journal (1855), ii. 301-2; Ball, ‘Glamorgan members’, 28. During the election campaign, his son John became engaged to Talbot’s sister, Emma, cementing the close relations between their families. Following their marriage, Dillwyn in 1834 left Penllergare and moved to the newly-renovated Sketty Hall, near Swansea, which he had purchased in 1831 at a cost of £3,800.23L.W. Dillwyn, diary, 11 June 1831, Randall & Rees, Diary of Lewis Weston Dillwyn, 69; Walker, ‘The Dillwyns as naturalists’, 31. Both Dillwyn and Talbot were re-elected unopposed in 1835, and Dillwyn ceded full control over the Cambrian pottery to his son Lewis the following year.24Charles, ‘Lewis Weston Dillwyn and the Cambrian pottery’, 12-13.

Dillwyn is not known have spoken in debate, but he served on the select committees on the Londonderry and Monaghan election petitions, and the 1834 committee which considered whether the number of houses occupied by public officials at public expense could be diminished.25PP 1833 (180), x. 412; CJ, lxxxix (1834), 454; PP 1834 (480), xi. 450; PP 1834 (558), xi. 454. After moving in 1833 for a return of treasury disbursements on election petition committees, he was accused by the Morning Chronicle of trying to stifle inquiry, but this may simply have reflected his concern for economy.26Morning Chronicle, 15 July 1833. Dillwyn was active in attending committees on local bills relating to Glamorgan, and this diligent attention to county business was rewarded with ‘strong expressions of obligation and approbation’ at a dinner given by the Glamorgan canal company in 1836.27L.W. Dillwyn, diary, 15, 16, 20, 22, 24 June 1833, 3 Mar. 1836, Randall & Rees, Diary of Lewis Weston Dillwyn, 76, 78. For his involvement with local bills, see also CJ, lxxxviii. 104, lxxxix. 153, 159. He did, however, find time for his scientific studies: ‘from the atmosphere of the House of Commons he would turn away as uncongenial to his taste, and repair to the Linnean or the Royal Society, the British Museum, or the Athenaeum’.28Cambrian journal (1855), ii. 298.

A fairly diligent attender, Dillwyn’s views were generally in sympathy with the Whigs: he divided against further electoral reform, but supported efforts to remove religious disabilities, dividing for the second reading of the Jewish disabilities removal bill, 29 May 1833, and the admission of Dissenters to universities, 20 June 1834. However, his voting patterns confirm the view of one obituary that ‘he exhibited more freedom from the trammels of party, more independence than most men of his time’.29Cambrian journal (1855), ii. 302. Although he supported ministers on the Irish coercion bill, 15 Mar. 1833, and the poor law, 9 May 1834, he opposed them on a variety of other issues, including factory reform, where he divided with Lord Ashley, 3 Apr. and 5 July 1833, the malt tax, 30 Apr. 1833, and the pension list, 18 Feb. and 5 May 1834. He divided in the minority against allotting £20 million for compensation to slaveowners, 31 July 1833, and also objected to the disfranchisement of the Liverpool freemen, 26 Feb. 1834, believing that the Reform Act ‘should operate as a Sponge on all former Offences’.30L.W. Dillwyn, diary, 26 Feb. 1834, Randall & Rees, Diary of Lewis Weston Dillwyn, 74. He opposed Hume’s motion for a fixed moderate duty on corn, 8 Mar. 1834, and routinely backed Chandos’ motion that more consideration be given to the agricultural interest.31Ball, ‘Glamorgan members’, 27. He divided against the abolition of flogging in the army, 14 Mar. 1834, but supported efforts to pass a Sabbath day observance bill, 5 May 1834.

Dillwyn’s independent streak led the Examiner to list him among the ‘doubtful men’ after the 1835 election, describing him as formerly ‘a good Reformer’, but now ‘a trimmer’ who had ‘gone over to the enemy’.32The Examiner, 8 Feb. 1835. He was absent from the division on the speakership, 19 Feb. 1835, and also declined to vote on the Irish church, 7 Apr. 1835, recording that ‘on the whole my inclination most led me to support the Ministers, but I more or less disapproved of the proceedings on both sides and disliked to vote in opposition to my Colleague’.33L.W. Dillwyn, diary, 7 Apr. 1835, Randall & Rees, Diary of Lewis Weston Dillwyn, 76. Although one contemporary account listed him as an opponent of appropriation, he was in fact among the ‘half-and-half men’, who stayed away on some occasions but voted with the Whigs on others.34The Times, 1 Sept. 1837. Dillwyn continued to display his independence during the remainder of his parliamentary career, supporting ministers on questions such as municipal reform, 22 June 1835, tithe commutation, 24 June 1836, and abolition of church rates, 23 May 1837, but also dividing in the minority on an eclectic range of issues, including the admission of ladies to the Strangers’ Gallery, 3 May 1836, and allowing MPs to be the paid advocate of particular interests in Parliament, 30 June 1836, both of which Dillwyn opposed. He had intended to divide with the minority in support of Rippon’s motion to remove bishops from the Lords, 26 Apr. 1836, but arrived too late after dinner, and was shut out.35Ball, ‘Glamorgan members’, 27.

Dillwyn retired at the 1837 election, declining a baronetcy which Liberal ministers offered if he would stand against the Conservative candidate, an offer which suggests that despite the Examiner’s concerns, his broad party loyalties were not in question.36L.W. Dillwyn, diary, 13, 15 July 1837, Randall & Rees, Diary of Lewis Weston Dillwyn, 84. Dod’s Parliamentary Companion consistently listed Dillwyn as a Whig. He continued to be involved with county politics, however, and proposed Talbot at the nomination in 1841.37L.W. Dillwyn, diary, 9 July 1841, Randall & Rees, Diary of Lewis Weston Dillwyn, 89. Despite his earlier protectionist sympathies, he reportedly signed the requisition to a free trade candidate in 1852.38W. Stroud to Sir J. Guest, 15 July 1852, M. Elsas (ed.), Iron in the making. Dowlais iron company letters 1782-1860 (1960), 233. Although a free trade candidate (John Nicholl) was nominated, he withdrew at the hustings. He also remained active in Swansea politics, having been made a burgess in 1834, and elected as an alderman at the first municipal election in 1835.39Jackson, ‘Dillwyn, Lewis Weston’. He became mayor in 1839, but declined to serve for a second year, partly on health grounds.40T.G. Davies, ‘Lewis Weston Dillwyn and his doctors’, Morgannwg (1988) xxxii. 85. His son-in-law, Matthew Moggridge, took his place. From its foundation in 1835, he was president of the Swansea Philosophical and Literary Society, lobbying for royal patronage which saw it become the Royal Institution of South Wales, and promoting the building of Swansea Museum.41Gent. Mag. (1855), ii. 543; Miskell, ‘Intelligent town’, 173. In 1840 he published a history of Swansea to raise funds for Swansea Infirmary.42Jackson, ‘Dillwyn, Lewis Weston’. When the British Association held its annual meeting at Swansea in 1848, Dillwyn served as a vice-president, and published his last work, Flora and Fauna of Swansea, for the occasion.43Randall & Rees, Diary of Lewis Weston Dillwyn, 3. His interest in natural history did not prevent him enjoying traditional rural pursuits, such as fox-hunting, shooting and fishing. While his favourite sport was hare-coursing, he also tried otter hunting and puffin shooting.44Walker, ‘The Dillwyns as naturalists’, 25-6. He was said to be ‘blunt, frank, straightforward’, but ‘hospitable always and hearty... equally at home with the farmer and the philosopher, with the former jovial and with the latter wise’.45Cambrian journal (1855), ii. 304; Gent. Mag. (1855), ii. 543. Although some accounts depict Dillwyn as ‘neurotically concerned’ with his own and his family’s health, others disagree, although as a devoted father he was deeply affected by the deaths of two children (in 1819 and 1828).46Ball, ‘Glamorgan members’, 16; Walker, ‘The Dillwyns as naturalists’, 25. See the cover of Gabb, Mr. Dillwyn’s diary, which depicts a painting commissioned by Dillwyn of the death-bed scene of his daughter, Sarah. In declining health in his later years, Dillwyn withdrew from public life, and died in August 1855 at Sketty Hall.47Jackson, ‘Dillwyn, Lewis Weston’. He was buried in the family vault at Penllergaer church.48Gent. Mag. (1855), ii. 543.

Dillwyn left a life interest in his estates to his wife, with his second son Lewis then to inherit.49In 1862 his sons were involved in legal wranglings over part of his estate: The Law Times, 6 Sept. 1862. As both his sons were occupying other properties, Sketty Hall was leased out, before passing out of family hands in 1898.50B. Morris, The houses of Singleton (1995), 107-8. Sketty Hall is now a conference centre owned by Swansea College: http://www.skettyhall.com/ Lewis (1814-92) played a significant role in Swansea’s industrial development, and followed in his father’s footsteps in local and parliamentary politics. He was mayor of Swansea (1848), and the town’s MP from 1855-92, acting for many years as the leader of the Welsh Liberals.51D. Painting, ‘Dillwyn, Lewis Llewelyn’, Oxf. DNB [www.oxforddnb.com]. John (1810-82) confined himself to local politics, serving as high sheriff of Glamorgan (1834-6) and on the Swansea school board and board of guardians.52R.L. Morris, ‘Llewelyn, John Dillwyn’, Oxf. DNB [www.oxforddnb.com]; Western Mail, 25 Aug. 1882. He shared his father’s enthusiasm for science, and was a notable pioneer photographer, as was his sister Mary.53Gabb, Mr. Dillwyn’s diary, 129. John’s wife, Emma, was a cousin of Henry Fox Talbot. John’s son, John Talbot Dillwyn Llewelyn, was Conservative MP for Swansea town, 1895-1900, while his grandson, Charles Leyshon Dillwyn Venables Llewelyn, served briefly as Conservative MP for Radnorshire (January-December 1910). Dillwyn’s diaries (covering 1817-52) have been deposited in the National Library of Wales, as have the Penllergare estate papers.54http://arcw.llgc.org.uk/cgi-bin/anw/search2?coll_id=455&inst_id=1&term=Dillwyn%20%7C%20William%20%7C%201743-1824?&L=0; http://arcw.llgc.org.uk/anw/get_collection.php?inst_id=1&coll_id=20193&expand= Access to the Dillwyn diaries has, however, apparently been withdrawn. Extracts from the diaries have been published in Gabb, Mr. Dillwyn’s diary; Grant, Parliamentary history of Glamorgan; and, most comprehensively, in Randall & Rees, Diary of Lewis Weston Dillwyn. The University of Swansea also has a collection of family papers, while Trinity College, Dublin holds Dillwyn’s diary of his 1809 visit to Ireland.55http://arcw.llgc.org.uk/anw/get_collection.php?coll_id=11276&inst_id=35&term=Dillwyn%20%7C%20L.%20W.%20%28Lewis%20Weston%29%20%7C%201778-1855; http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/subjectView.asp?ID=P8097. On Dillwyn’s visit to Ireland, see G.J. Lyne, ‘Lewis Dillwyn’s visit to Kerry, 1809’, Journal of the Kerry Archaeological & Historical Society, 15-16 (1982-83), 83-111; idem., ‘Lewis Dillwyn’s visit to Waterford, Cork and Tipperary in 1809’, Journal of the Cork Historical & Archaeological Society, 91 (1986), 85-104. Some papers relating to the Cambrian pottery are held by the V&A Museum, while Dillwyn’s insect catalogue is held by the Linnean Society.