Appendix 245 



ago' was iiiueh liarder to aeijuii'e than at present. His accuracy' is often greater tiian 

 that provided in tiie more elaborate pedigrees of the present day. I have had, of course, 

 to judge occasionally between conflicting statements, but if tlie reader finds my ])edigree 

 dififers at points from other versions, it has not been done without inquiry and con- 

 sideration. It is impossible here to defend in detail the version actually provided. Of 

 course the present work difl'ers absolutely in character from the excellent, privately 

 printed, PeiUijrce <;/' the Family of Daririii, 1888, compiled by the Somerset Herald, 

 H. Farnham Burke. The object of tliat work was to trace as completely as possible all 

 the descendants of William Darwin of Marton (who died c. lo42) without regard to 

 their achievements. The scope of the present pedigree is to follow back from Charles 

 Darwin himself those lines which lead us to persons noteworthy in the history of this 

 country, or noteworthy from the standpoint of European history. It is needless to say 

 that in a certain sense sucii a pedigree cannot be complete. Further reseiirch would be 

 certain to lead us to still further instances of noteworthy men or women. Indeed to 

 keep the pedigree within anything like reasonable bounds I have had to indicate 

 occasionally only final ancestors, and in other cases to entirely omit lines I perfectly 

 well knew to te of distinction, but for which no space was available. 



The reader who studies this pedigree alongside that of Francis Galton will be struck 

 with many similarities, but some marked differences. The turning point, of course, lies 

 in the Howard marriage of Erasmus Darwin. That marriage brought into the Darwin 

 stock the sound commercial energy of the Foleys (see Plate LXIII), who like Galtons and 

 Farmers had amassed large wealth by iron-foundries. It gave also to the Darwin stock 

 their share of aristocratic and ultimately royal blood through Pagets and Devereux, an 

 acquisition which the Galtons had made through the Barclays ; it supplied also a pleasure 

 pursuing element in Lettice Knollys and Penelope Devereux, which may be paralleled in 

 the Colyear strain of Francis Galton ; but it failed to provide anything of the strong 

 religious nature that we find the Quakers contributing to Francis Galton's stock. We 

 largely miss too the strong admixture of Scottish blood, tliough possibly the Butlers, 

 de Burghs and Fitzgeralds may supply Celtic imagination. It is of interest to note that 

 Galton and Darwin were linked together by conniion blood in a variety of ways wholly 

 independent of Erasmus Darwin. I should not wish the reader to look upon a pedigree 

 like the present as an amusing tour deforce. I think, on the contrary, that it illustrates 

 a principle expressed by Galton himself on more than one occasion, namely that those 

 who have chiefly made the history oi this country, we maj' indeed say of Europe, fall into 

 relatively few strains and these strains are closely linked together by blood relationships-'. 

 Distinguished leaflers of men — judges. Speakers of the House of Commons, leaders of 

 commerce, warriors, diplomatists, and men of affairs — are all there in the background 

 and linked by ties of blood with the modern leaders of men — the originators of ideas 

 which govern human progress — with men like Darwin and Galton. 



I have not reproduced fully Mary Howard's immediate relatives. They belonged to 

 a strain almost as physically delicate as the Buttons (see p. 36 above). Charles Howai'd, 

 Mary Howard's father, died at (54, her mother at 40, their daughter Elizabeth livwl 



' His single pedigrees of various lines do not reach back to the same distant 

 ancestry ius mine do, but they have been very helpful. 



- See the quotation from a letter of Galton's to Nature given on p. 6 above. 



