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 borders of 

 Lincolnshire, close to Yorkshire. The name is now very 

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

 in the neighbourhood 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 3^. ^d. towards the settynge up 

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

 doore in the parishe churche of Marton." * 



The son of this Richard, named William Darwin, and 

 described as " gentleman," appears to have been a successful 



* We owe a knowledge of these Lincoln, made by the well-known 

 earlier members of the family to genealogist, Colonel Chester, 

 researches amongst the wills at 



VOL. I. B 



