200 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
Present the kind regards of our family circle to my daugh- 
ter, MT Audubon, & my Grandson !* who I hope are well 
I remain Gent" 
Yours truly 
W™ BakEwELL 
PS 
Mr’ Kinder is of opinion that there ought to be a renuncia- 
tion by Lucy of any claim of dower upon this estate to 
make the title good this may be sent on when you are 
coming this way 
[Addressed] Mess’ Aupuson & Rozier 
Merchs 
Louisville 
Kentucky— 
[Endorsed] Rec4. May 5th, 1810 
Lucy Green Bakewell, Audubon’s wife, was three 
years younger than her husband, having been born at 
Burton-on-Trent, England, in 1788. Her family were 
descended from John Bakewell of “Castle Donning- 
ton,” in Leicestershire; Robert Bakewell, the geologist, 
who came to the naturalist’s defense many years later, 
and who lived until 1843, was a nephew of her grand- 
father, Joseph Bakewell of Derby. Left an orphan at 
an early age, Lucy’s father, William Bakewell, was 
brought up by an uncle, Thomas Woodhouse, a rich 
bachelor of Crith, Derbyshire, who eventually left him 
a fortune. 
When William Bakewell succeeded to his uncle’s es- 
tate and manor, he lived the life of a country gentleman, 
devoting himself mainly to shooting and to the study of 
chemistry and natural philosophy, while he enjoyed the 
friendship of such men as Joseph Priestley and Erasmus 
Darwin. His advocacy of Priestley’s republican and 
* Victor Gifford Audubon, who was then nine months old. 
