LIFE AND LETTERS 



OF 



CHARLES DARWIN. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE DARWIN FAMILY. 



The earliest records of the family show the Darwins to 

 have been substantial yeomen residing on the northern bor- 

 ders of Lincolnshire, close to Yorkshire. The name is now 

 very unusual in England, but I believe that it is not unknown 

 in the neighbourhaod of Sheffield and in Lancashire. Down 

 to the year 1600 we find the name spelt in a variety of ways 

 — Derwent, Darwen, Darwynne, &c. It is possible, therefore, 

 that the family migrated at some unknown date from York- 

 shire, Cumberland, or Derbyshire, where Derwent occurs as 

 the name of a river. 



The first ancestor of whom we know was one William 

 Darwin, who lived, about the year 1500, at Marton, near 

 Gainsborough. His great grandson, Richard Darwyn, in- 

 herited land at Marton and elsewhere, and in his will, dated 

 1584, " bequeathed the sum of 35'. 4d. towards the settynge up 

 of the Queene's Majestie's armes over the quearie (choir) 

 doore in the parishe churche of Marton." * 



The son of this Richard, named William Darwin, and 



* We owe a knowledge of these earlier members of the family to re- 

 searches amongst the wills at Lincoln, made by the well-known genealo- 

 gist, Colonel Chester. 



