Item NLW MS 14005E, ff. 43-45. - Letters from Lewis Weston Dillwyn,

Lewis Weston Dillwyn (1778-1855) was a naturalist and a Whig MP. He was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, the son of William Dillwyn (?1743-1824) of Walthamstow, and Sarah Weston of Essex. He attended the Friends' School in Tottenham, and in 1797 went to Dover to study botany. He ran the 'Cambrian Pottery' in Swansea, 1802-1817, living at Burrough Lodge and then Sketty Hall. He was a noted naturalist, publishing works on botany and conchology, and was elected FRS in 1804. He was a Justice of the Peace, sheriff of Glamorgan, 1818, mayor of Swansea, 1839, and MP for Glamorgan, 1832-1841. Among his publications were Natural History of British Confervae (1802-9), Botanist's Guide through England and Wales, written with Dawson Turner (1805), A Descriptive Catalogue of British Shells (2 vols, 1817), An Index to the Historia Conchyliorum of Lister (Oxford, 1923) and a short history of Swansea published in 1840. In 1807 he married Mary, daughter and heir of John Llewelyn of Penlle'rgaer, Llangyfelach, Glamorgan. They had two daughters and two sons, John Dillwyn-Llewelyn (1810-1882) of Penlle'rgaer and Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn (1814-1892). Lewis Weston Dillwyn died on 31 August 1855.