Reginald James Blewitt

Born in 1799, he was the second son of Major Edward Blewitt of Llanternam Abbey in Monmouthshire. Educated at Rugby and trained in law, he published The Court of Chancery: A Satirical Poem in 1827, a work that gave literary form to his knowledge of legal culture and remains the book most closely linked with his name.

His life reached far beyond writing. Blewitt became proprietor of the Monmouthshire Merlin, helped build it into a major Welsh newspaper, and was elected Whig MP for Monmouthshire Boroughs in 1837. He was also involved in banking, coal, iron, canals, and railways, making him very much a figure of the energetic and argumentative world of 19th-century Wales.

He died in 1878. No suitable confirmed portrait image was found from the sources checked, so a profile image is not included here.