Joseph BLIGHT

Joseph BLIGHT
1837
1894

Joseph Blight was born at Redruth in 1837, the son of Robert and Thomasine Blight and younger brother of John Thomas Blight. His father was a schoolteacher and around 1839 the family moved to Penzance. By 1861 Joseph is recorded as an engraver on wood while his brother John is described as an artist.

Around 1861 Joseph was offered a job in London as an engraver for Cassells, the book publishers, and as he was finding in difficult to earn a living in Cornwall, he moved to London and by 1871 he was living as a boarder in Islington. He continued to carry out commissions for acquaintances in Cornwall.

He completed engravings for his brother, John and also for W C Borlase. He illustrated a lecture on Penzance by George Bown Millett in 1876 and also the 2nd and 3rd series of William Bottrell's Stories and Folk Lore of West Cornwall in 1873 and 1880. In the 1881 census he is back living in Penzance with his mother and sister.

He later returned to London, where he was described in the 1891 census as an artist and illustrator. He died in Greenwich in 1894.

media

Wood engraver, illustrator

references

Bates and Spurgin 2006 The Dust of Heroes, the life of Cornish Artist, archaeologist & writer, J T Blight;