Robert Waring Darwin - Definition

Robert Darwin, from an oil painting by James Pardon.

Doctor Robert Waring Darwin, F.R.S. (30th May 1766 - 13th November 1848) was the son of Erasmus Darwin and the father of Charles Darwin.

He became a Doctor of Medicine at the University of Leyden, and completed his medical studies in Edinburgh in 1786, when he was only 20.

In 18th April 1796 1796 He married Susannah Wedgwood, at in St Marylebone, Middlesex, and they had six children:

• Marianne Darwin (1798-?), married Henry Parker (1788–1858) in 1824.
• Caroline Sarah Darwin (1800-1888) married Josiah Wedgwood (grandson of potter)
• Susan Elizabeth Darwin (1803-1866)
• Erasmus Alvey Darwin (1804-1881)
• Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882)
• Emily Catherine Darwin (1810-?)

He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society on 21st February 1788.

He cautioned his son against voyaging on the Beagle, but was persuaded otherwise. A large man of 6'2" he reportedly stopped weighing himself when he weighed 24 stone, and required his coachman to test the floorboards of houses he was visiting, and had to have special stone steps made for him to enter his carriage.

External links

• http://darwin.baruch.cuny.edu/biography/shrewsbury/rdarwin.html