Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 05.djvu/224

 same instrument, and wrote many songs for the Spa Gardens, Bermondsey, near which he lived. His death took place in 1805.

 BLEWITT, JONATHAN (1780?–1853), composer, son of [q. v.], is generally said to have been born in 1782 or 1784, but is also stated to have been at the time of his death in his 73rd year. He was educated by his father and his godfather, [q. v.], and he also received some instruction from Haydn. At the age of eleven he acted as deputy to his father, and subsequently he held several appointments as organist in London. He was also successively organist of Haverhill, Suffolk, and of Brecon, at which latter place he remained three years. About 1808 he returned to London for the production of an opera he had written for Drury Lane, but the theatre was burnt down before the work was brought out. Blewitt next went to Sheffield, and thence he proceeded (in 1811) to Ireland, where he lived for a time with Lord Cahir. He was appointed organist of St. Andrew's, Dublin, composer and director of the music at the Theatre Royal, and grand organist to the Freemasons of Ireland, the latter post being given him by the Duke of Leinster. On Logier's introducing his system into Ireland, Blewitt joined him, and was very successful as a teacher, but in 1820 he was back in London, and began the long series of pantomime compositions with which his name was connected for the rest of his life. For upwards of twenty-five years he wrote pantomime music for most of the London theatres, and his last work, 'Harlequin Hudibras,' was brought out at Drury Lane the year before his death. In 1828 and 1829 he was director of the music at Sadler's Wells Theatre, and he was also, at different times, musical director at Vauxhall, at the Tivoli Gardens, Margate, and pianist to Templeton's Vocal Entertainments. He wrote a few light operas and upwards of 2,000 pieces of vocal music, most of them comic songs, for which he was very celebrated, the best remembered being 'Barney Brallaghan.' In his latter years Blewitt sank into great poverty, and suffered much from a painful disease. He died in London 4 Sept. 1853 and was buried at St. Pancras. He left a widow and two daughters totally unprovided for.

 BLEWITT, OCTAVIAN (1810–1884), secretary of the Royal Literary Fund, was son of John Edwards Blewitt, by his marriage with Caroline, daughter of Peter Symons, sometime mayor of Plymouth. He was born on 3 Oct. 1810 in St. Helen's Place, Bishopsgate, London, where his father was settled as a merchant. Much of his early life was spent at Marazion House, in Cornwall, the residence of his great-uncle, Hannibal Curnow Blewitt; and he received his education at Plymouth grammar school. Entering the medical profession, he served the usual five years' apprenticeship, partly to his uncle, Mr. Dryden, assistant-surgeon of Devonport dockyard, and partly to Mr. Pollard of Torquay. In December 1833 he came to London, where he continued his medical studies in the infirmary of St. George's Hanover Square, and spent much of his time in the house of Sir James Clark, acting as tutor in classics to Clark's son and assisting him in preparing for the press his work on 'Phthisis.' Afterwards he visited the island of Madeira with a patient, remained at Funchal for eight months, and subsequently travelled much in Italy, Egypt, Greece, Turkey, and other countries. In March 1839 he was elected secretary of the Royal Literary Fund, which office he continued to hold till his death. During his secretaryship the institution largely extended the sphere of its operations and attained a thoroughly safe and assured position. Blewitt spent many years in arranging the papers, literary, financial, and historical, which constituted the records of the association; and these documents, when classified, were stitched into covers so as to be read like a book, and are now preserved in 130 folio boxes. In 1872 the King of the Belgians presided at the annual banquet of the Literary Fund, and testified his sense of the secretary's services by creating him a knight of the order of Leopold. He died in London in November 1884.

He was the author of: 'A Panorama of Torquay,' Torquay, 1830, 12mo, which was so successful that the impression was speedily exhausted, and a second and enlarged edition, professing to be 'A Descriptive and Historical Sketch of the District between the Dart and Teign,' was published at London in 1833, 8vo. 'Treatise on the Happiness arising from the Exercise of the Christian Faith.' The preface to Glynn's 'Autograph Portfolio.' 'Handbook for Travellers in Central Italy, including the Papal States, Rome, and the Cities of Etruria,' London, 1843, 12mo (anon.); 2nd edition (with the author's name), 1850. This and the following work belong to the series