page_title: Darwin–Wedgwood family
section_title: Erasmus Darwin
hierarchical_section_title: Darwin–Wedgwood family / The first generation / Erasmus Darwin
context_page_description: The Darwin–Wedgwood family are persons descended from both of two particular prominent 18th-century men; Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood, founder of the eponymous Wedgwood and Sons pottery company.
  The most notable among them was Charles Darwin, a grandson to each. The family also included at least ten Fellows of the Royal Society, and several artists and poets. Presented below are brief biographical descriptions and genealogical information, and mentions of some notable descendants. The relationship to Francis Galton, and to his immediate ancestors, is also given.
context_section_description: Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802) was a physician, botanist and poet from Lichfield, whose lengthy botanical poems gave insights into medicine and natural history, and described an evolutionist theory that anticipated both Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and his grandson Charles. He married twice, first during 1757 to Mary Howard (1740–1770), who died from alcohol-induced liver failure aged 31. She gave birth to:
  Charles Darwin (1758–1778) (not Charles Robert Darwin)
  Erasmus Darwin the Younger (1759–1799)
  Elizabeth Darwin, 1763 (survived 4 months)
  Robert Waring Darwin (see below)
  William Alvey Darwin, (1767) (survived 19 days)
  He then had an extra-marital affair with a Miss Parker, producing two daughters:
  Susanna Parker (1772–1856)
  Mary Parker (1774–1859)
  He then became smitten with Elizabeth Collier Sacheveral-Pole, who was married to Colonel Sacheveral-Pole and was the natural daughter of the Charles Colyear, 2nd Earl of Portmore. Sacheveral-Pole died soon afterwards, and Erasmus married Elizabeth and they bore an additional seven children:
  Edward Darwin, (1782–1829)
  Frances Anne Violetta Darwin, (1783–1874); married Samuel Tertius Galton; mother of Francis Galton (see below)
  Emma Georgina Elizabeth Darwin (born 1784)
  Sir Francis Sacheverel Darwin (1786–1859)
  John Darwin (1787–1865)
  Henry Darwin (born 1789)
  Harriot Darwin (1790–1825); later Harriott Maling.
caption: Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802).
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