A CENTURY OF FAMILY LETTERS 



CHAPTER I 



17921800 



Emma Wedgwood The Aliens of Cresselly Sir James Mackintosh 

 The Wedgwoods and Darwins Josiah Wedgwood's marriage 

 A ball at Ramsgate Tom Wedgwood's ill-health The 

 Wedgwoods at GunviUe. 



EMMA WEDGWOOD was born on May 2, 1808, at Maer Hall 

 in Staffordshire. She was the youngest child of Josiah 

 Wedgwood of Maer, and his wife, Elizabeth, the eldest 

 daughter of John Bartlett Allen, of Cresselly, Pembrokeshire. 

 The first part of this family record consists of letters col- 

 lected by Emma Wedgwood's mother, Mrs Josiah Wedg- 

 wood of Maer. 1 Later on follow the life and letters of 

 Emma Wedgwood, first as a girl and afterwards as the wife 

 of her cousin, Charles Darwin. As these three families of 

 Aliens, Wedgwoods, and Darwins will be found constantly 

 recurring through the book, I have found it convenient to 

 begin with a short account of their origin, and especially of 

 those members of the group who most often appear. 



The Aliens came originally from the north of Ireland, and 

 settled in Pembrokeshire in about 1600. The estate of 

 Cresselly was acquired by the marriage of John Allen with 

 Joan Bartlett. Their son, John Bartlett Allen of Cresselly 

 (1733 1803), married Elizabeth Hensleigh, who died many 

 years before her husband. He fought in the Seven Years' 

 War as an officer in the 1st Foot Guards (now Grenadier 

 Guards) . Quite lately his great-grandson found that he was 

 still remembered in the neighbourhood, and was told that 

 'the owd capen was a wonderful man." He had a large 



To avoid confusion, these letters, thus collected, will be called 

 ' The Maer Letters." Their editor is the third daughter of Emma 

 Wedgwood, who married Charles Darwin, 



