Darwin-Wedgwood family

The Darwin—Wedgwood family was a prominent English family, descended from Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood, the most notable member of which was Charles Darwin. The family contained at least ten Fellows of the Royal Society and several artists and poets. Presented below are brief biographical sketches and genealogical information with links to articles on the members. The individuals are listed by year of birth and grouped into generations. The relationship to Francis Galton and his immediate ancestors is also given.

The third generation

Charles Darwin

The most prominent member of the family, Charles Darwin, proposed the first coherent theory of evolution by means of natural and sexual selection.

Related Topics:
Charles Darwin - Evolution - Natural - Sexual selection

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Charles Robert Darwin was a son of Robert Waring Darwin and Susannah Wedgwood. He married Emma Wedgwood, a daughter of Josiah Wedgwood II and Elizabeth Allen. Charles's mother, Susannah, was a sister to Emma's father, Josiah II. Thus, Charles and Emma were first cousins. Because of intermarriages in earlier generations, they were also related in other ways.

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The Darwins had several children, three of whom died before reaching maturity.

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• William Erasmus Darwin (27 December 1839 - 1914); graduate of Christ's College Cambridge, he was a banker in Southampton. He married the New Yorker Sara Ashburner (-1902), but they had no children.
• Anne Elizabeth Darwin (1841-1851) died of tuberculosis aged ten and her death caused her father much pain.
• Mary Eleanor Darwin (23 September, 1842 - 16 October, 1842) died as a baby.
• Henrietta Emma "Etty" Darwin (25 September, 1843 - 1929); although she married Richard Litchfield in 1871, the couple never had any children. Etty Darwin edited her mother's private papers (published in 1904) and assisted her father with his work.
• George Howard Darwin (1845-1912); see below
• Elizabeth Darwin or Bessy Darwin (8 July 1847–1926); never married and had no descendents.
• Leonard Darwin (1850-1943); see below
• Francis Darwin (1848-1925); see below
• Horace Darwin (1851-1928); see below
• Charles Waring Darwin (6 December, 1856 - 28 June, 1858) was the tenth child and sixth son of Charles and Emma Darwin. His early death from scarlet fever kept Charles Darwin from attending the first publication of Darwin's theory at the joint reading of papers by Alfred Russel Wallace and himself at the meeting of the Linnean Society on 1st July 1858. Wallace was not present either - he was on an expedition.

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Francis Galton

Sir Francis Galton FRS (1822–1911) made important contributions to statistics and is known as the father of eugenics. He married Louisa Jane Butler, but they had no children.

Related Topics:
Francis Galton - 1822 - 1911 - Statistics - Eugenics

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