25 Facts About Emma Darwin

Emma Darwin was an English woman who was the wife and first cousin of Charles Darwin.

Charles Emma Darwin was her first cousin; their shared grandparents were Josiah and Sarah Wedgwood, and as the Wedgwood and Emma Darwin families were closely allied, they had been acquainted since childhood.

Emma Darwin was close to her sister Fanny, the two being known by the family as the "Doveleys", and was charming and messy, accounting for her nickname, "Little Miss Slip-Slop".

Emma Darwin 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 60 village children their only formal training in reading, writing and religion.

Emma Darwin was by then "one of the show performers on the piano", to the extent that on one occasion she was invited along to play for George IV's Mrs Fitzherbert.

Emma Darwin had piano lessons from Moscheles, and allegedly "two or three" from Chopin.

When her father went to collect them he was accompanied by their cousin, Caroline Emma Darwin, and took Charles Emma Darwin, Caroline's brother, as far as Paris, where they all met up again before returning home in July 1827.

Emma Darwin was keen on outdoor sports and loved archery.

At Maer on 31 August 1831 she was with her family when they helped Charles Emma Darwin to overturn his father's objections to letting Charles go on an extended voyage on the Beagle.

Emma Darwin herself had turned down several offers of marriage, and after her mother suffered a seizure and became bedridden Emma Darwin and her older sister Elizabeth spent a lot of time nursing their mother, though with the help of many servants.

Emma Darwin Wedgwood 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.

Charles and Emma Darwin raised their 10 children in a distinctly non-authoritarian manner, and several of them later achieved considerable success in their chosen careers: George, Francis and Horace became Fellows of the Royal Society.

Emma Darwin is especially remembered for her patience and fortitude in dealing with her husband's long-term illness.

Emma Darwin nursed her children through frequent illnesses, and endured the deaths of three of them: Anne, Mary, and Charles Waring.

Emma Darwin's views were not simple and unwavering, and were the result of intensive study and questioning.

Emma Darwin was open about his scepticism before they became engaged, and she discussed with him the tension between her fears that differences of belief would separate them, and her desire to be close and openly share ideas.

Emma Darwin valued his openness, and his genuine uncertainty regarding the existence and nature of God, which gradually developed into agnosticism.

Emma Darwin had already wondered about the materialism implied by his ideas.

Emma Darwin cherished a belief in the afterlife, and was concerned that they should "belong to each other" for eternity.

The passage in the Gospel of John referred to in Emma Darwin's letter says "Love one another", then describes Jesus saying "I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me".

In Downe Emma Darwin attended the Anglican village church, but as a Unitarian had the family turn round in silence when the Trinitarian Nicene Creed was recited.

Emma Darwin bought a large house called The Grove on Huntingdon Road in Cambridge, and lived there during the winters.

Emma Darwin lived there during most winters, spending summers in Gloucestershire.

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

Eight members of the Emma Darwin family are buried at St Mary's Church, Downe.