John Dillwyn Llewelyn

John Dillwyn Llewelyn FRS FRAS (12 January 1810 – 24 August 1882) was a Welsh botanist and pioneer photographer. Early life He was born in the parish of Llangyfelach, Swansea, Wales, the eldest son of Lewis Weston Dillwyn and Mary Dillwyn, née Adams, the natural daughter of Col. John Llewelyn of Penllergaer and Ynysygerwn. His sister, Mary Dillwyn (1816–1906), is remembered as the earliest female photographer in Wales. Upon coming of age he inherited his maternal grandfather John Llewelyn's estates of Penllergaer and Ynysygerwn, near Swansea, and assumed the additional surname of Llewelyn. Educated privately, he met through his father (a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Linnean Society, and at one time a member of Parliament) many of the eminent men of his time. These included Sir David Brewster, Michael Faraday and Charles Wheatstone. His father Lewis Weston Dillwyn had been sent to Swansea in 1803 by Lewis' father William to take over the management of the Cambrian Pottery. In 1833 he married Emma Thomasina Talbot, daughter of Thomas Mansel Talbot and Lady Mary Lucy, née Fox Strangways, the younger daughter of the Earl & Countess of Ilchester. Thomas was related to William Davenport Talbot and Mary was the sister of Elisabeth Talbot, the parents of William Henry Fox Talbot. Henry Talbot, through his botanic interests was a friend of Lewis Weston Dillwyn and spent some of his teenage years at Penrice, the home of the Welsh Talbots, also visiting Penllergaer. In 1835 he served as High Sheriff of Glamorgan. Photographic interests In January 1839, following the announcements of photographic processes by both William Henry Fox Talbot and Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, Llewelyn, with the encouragement of Henry Talbot, began to experiment himself. He tried all the processes available. His earliest daguerreotype is dated 1840. A few of his early photogenic drawings have survived, including some cliché verre, dated 1839. Some thousand calotype and wet collodion negatives still exist together with albums in private and public collections and retained by the family. When the Royal Photographic Society was founded in 1853, Llewelyn was one of those who attended the foundation meeting at the Society of Arts in London, and was, for some years, a founder Council member. It was suggested at one time that he become country vice-president, but nothing seems to have come of that idea.