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Emma Darwin

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Emma Darwin
Emma Darwin
For the modern descendant of this Emma Darwin, see Emma Darwin (novelist).

Emma Darwin (née Wedgwood, 2 May 1808–7 October 1896) was the wife and first cousin of the English naturalist Charles Darwin, and mother of their ten children.

Biography

Emma Wedgwood was born in 1808 at the family estate of Maer Hall, Maer, Staffordshire, the youngest of seven[1] children of Josiah Wedgwood II and his wife Bessy (Elizabeth). She grew up in a wealthy manufacturing family; her grandfather Josiah Wedgwood had made his fortune in pottery, and like many others who were not part of the aristocracy they were nonconformist, belonging to the Unitarian church. Charles Darwin was her first cousin; their shared grandparents were Josiah Wedgwood and his wife Sarah; and as the Wedgwood and Darwin families were closely allied, she had been acquainted with him since childhood.

She was very close to her sister Fanny, the two being known by the family as the "Doveleys", and was charming and messy, getting called "Little Miss Slip-Slop". She helped her older sister Elizabeth with the Sunday school which was held in Maer Hall laundry, writing simple moral tales to aid instruction and giving sixty village children their only formal training in reading, writing and religion.

For a time in her youth she was sent to Paris, where she studied piano with the celebrated composer Frédéric Chopin, and conducted a grand tour of Europe. In 1826 she went with her sister Fanny to stay with their Aunt Jessie (Madame de Sismondi, wife of the historian Jean Charles Leonard de Sismondi) for eight months near Geneva. When her father went to collect them he was accompanied by Caroline Darwin and also took Charles Darwin as far as Paris, where they all met up again before returning home in July 1827. She was keen on outdoor sports and became a "Dragoness" at archery.

At Maer on 31 August 1831 she was with her family when they helped Charles Darwin to overturn his father's objections to the Voyage of the Beagle. During the voyage Charles's sisters kept him informed of news including the untimely death of Emma's sister Fanny and the gossip that his brother Erasmus Alvey Darwin was "paired off" with Emma to avert "an action in the Papers" over his "carrying on" with Hensleigh Wedgwood's wife. When Charles returned and was quick to visit Maer she joined in the interest in his travels.

Emma herself had turned down several offers of marriage, but after her mother suffered a seizure and became bedridden Emma had to nurse her as well as looking after her elder sister Elizabeth who was dwarfish and had severe spinal curvature.

She accepted Charles' marriage proposal on 11 November 1838, at the age of 30, and they were married on 29 January 1839 at St. Peter's Anglican Church in Maer, Staffordshire. Their cousin, the Reverend John Allen Wedgwood officiated. Following a brief period of residence in London, they moved permanently to Down House, located in what was then the rural village of Down, close to the city.

Charles and Emma had ten children. They raised them in a distinctly non-authoritarian manner, and several of them later achieved considerable success in their chosen careers. Sir George Darwin, for example, became a scientist.

Emma Darwin is especially remembered for her patience and fortitude in dealing with her husband's long-term illness which became apparent shortly after their marriage. In nursing and humouring Charles through his many ups and downs, she was a crucial factor in her husband's scientific accomplishments. She also nursed her children through frequent illnesses, and endured the deaths of three of them: Anne, Mary, and Charles Waring. By the mid 1850s she was known throughout the parish for helping in the way a parson's wife might be expected to, giving out bread tokens to the hungry and "small pensions for the old, dainties for the ailing, and medical comforts and simple medicine" based on Dr. Robert Darwin's old prescription book.

A source of difficulty in the Darwins' marriage was conflict between Charles' scientific findings (most particularly, the origin of humanity in the undirected process of evolution) and Emma's own devout Christian beliefs. The difficulty was increased when, following the painful and emotionally devastating death of their 10-year-old daughter Anne, Charles no longer accepted the orthodox Christian view of God. After T.H. Huxley coined the word "agnostic" around 1868, Darwin used it to describe himself. Charles was evidently pained by the anxieties his beliefs produced in Emma, and tried to express them as gently as he could.

Emma often played the piano for Charles, and in Charles' 1871 The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, Darwin spent several pages on the evolution of musical ability by means of sexual selection.

After Charles' death, Emma lived for some time in Cambridge, in a house called The Grove, which now forms part of Fitzwilliam College.

Emma is buried at Downe together with Charles' brother, Erasmus.

As part of Darwin 200, The UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology, the Government's lead organisation for the provision of advice, services and policy consultation regarding the under-representation of women in science, engineering and technology (SET) has brought Emma Darwin back to life for a limited period only. Visitors can ask Emma questions about her life with Charles and her role in his work at her guest-post on the UKRC GetSET Women Blog written in Emma's voice by Karen James, a geneticist and Darwin200 science coordinator in the Botany Department of London's Natural History Museum who also serves as Director for Science of the HMS Beagle Project which aims to launch a modern rebuild of the Beagle for science, education and outreach.

Children

Emma Darwin with her son Leonard

The Darwins also brought up Francis' son Bernard Darwin after the death of Bernard's mother.

Modern day

In 2001 a biography of Emma was published written by Edna Healey, though it has been criticised for attempting to give credit to Emma for her husband's ideas, whereas most other historians agree she had little, if any, scientific input.

In 2008 Mrs Charles Darwin's Recipe Book was published, with profits going to the Darwin Correspondence Project at Cambridge University.[2]

The 2009 film Creation will focus in part on the relationship between Charles and Emma. Emma will be played by Jennifer Connolly.

See also

References

  1. ^ Template:Harvard reference
  2. ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/3884822/Revealed-the-recipes-that-fuelled-Charles-Darwin.html
  • Healey, E. Emma Darwin: The Inspirational Wife of a Genius ISBN 0-7472-7579-3 New Scientist review
  • Freeman, R. B. (2007). "Charles Darwin: A companion". Darwin Online. Retrieved 2008-06-18. Wedgwood, Emma [I], 1808 May 2 at Maer Hall-1896 Oct. 2 at Down House. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • H. Litchfield (ed) (1915). Darwin, a century of family letters, 1792-1896, in two volumes. London, John Murray.
  • Emma Darwin, a Century of Family Letters, 1792-1896 - edited by her daughter Henrietta Emma Darwin Litchfield (1915).

Further reading

  • Healey, E. Wives of fame : Mary Livingstone, Jenny Marx, Emma Darwin London : Sidgwick & Jackson, 1986. 210 pp. (see also Emma Darwin, above.)
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