Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jewitt, Thomas Orlando Sheldon
JEWITT, THOMAS ORLANDO SHELDON (1799–1869), wood-engraver, born in Derbyshire in 1799, was second son of Arthur Jewitt [q. v.] and his wife Martha, daughter of Thomas Sheldon. Jewitt was brought up with his family at Buxton, at Kimberworth, near Rotherham, Yorkshire, and subsequently at Duffield in Derbyshire. From an early age he devoted himself to wood-engraving, practising with the rudest materials and without any instruction. In 1815 he illustrated with woodcuts a volume, ‘Wanderings of Memory,’ by his elder brother, the Rev. Arthur George Jewitt. When his father, in 1817, published the first number of the ‘Northern Star, or Yorkshire Magazine,’ Jewitt contributed, with woodcuts and other engravings from his own drawings, an account of an extended walking tour in Derbyshire, which he had taken in May of that year. He rapidly established himself as a rising artist, and became known for the excellence of his architectural and archæological drawings and woodcuts. He was employed by Mr. J. H. Parker of Oxford to illustrate the numerous architectural publications issued by him, such as the ‘Glossary of Architecture’ and ‘Memorials of Oxford.’ For this purpose he removed to Headington, near Oxford. Subsequently he left Oxford for London, where he had almost a monopoly of the special class of wood-engraving in which he excelled. He was regularly employed as an artist by the Archæological Institute. He was engaged on the illustrations to Burn's ‘Rome and the Campagna’ when he was attacked by a fatal illness. He died at Clifton Villas, Camden Square, London, on 30 May 1869.
Jewitt was an enthusiastic naturalist and botanist, and illustrated many publications of this class from his own drawings. He had many pupils. He did much work in conjunction with his younger brother, Llewellynn Frederick William Jewitt [q. v.]
[Goss's Life of Llewellynn Jewitt; Art Journal, 1869; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Chatto and Jackson's Hist. of Wood Engraving, ed. Bohn.]