John Blackwell (1797 – 19 May 1840), who used the bardic name Alun, was a Welsh language poet.
Blackwell was born near Mold, Flintshire, in north Wales, and followed the trade of a shoemaker. He won prizes offered for poems and essays in the Welsh language and, supported by friends, he entered Jesus College, Oxford, in 1824, graduating B.A. in 1828.[1] In the autumn of that year, at the Royal Denbigh Eisteddvod, a prize was awarded him for his Welsh elegy on the death of Bishop Reginald Heber.[2]
In 1829 Blackwell was ordained to the curacy of Holywell. During his residence there he contributed largely to the columns of Gwyliedydd, an Anglican periodical; and in 1832 he was presented with a prize medal at the Beaumaris Eisteddvod. In 1833 he was presented by Lord-chancellor Brougham to the living of Manor Deivy, in Pembrokeshire. Soon afterwards he became editor of an illustrated magazine in the Welsh, Y Cylchgrawn, which he ran successfully. He died on 14 May 1840, and was buried at Manor Deivy Church.[2]
Blackwell's poems and essays, with a memoir of his life, were edited by the Rev. Griffith Edwards of Minera, in a volume entitled Ceinion Alun, Ruthin, 1851.[2]
