Darwin-Wedgwood
Today, Charles Darwin’s grandparents. The University of Houston presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.
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Charles Darwin did more than just provide the mechanism of evolution – namely natural selection. His work also held a thread of the humanism that’d run through both his own work and that of his forbears. So let us meet his grandparents: Josiah Wedgwood and Erasmus Darwin.
When we hear Wedgwoods’ name, we think of the fine tableware he made for the wealthy. In fact, Wedgwood – though immensely wealthy – was dedicated to improving the lot of the poor. He was a prominent slavery abolitionist. He also made and marketed simple inexpensive quality tableware to grace the lives of the laboring class.
Grandfather Erasmus Darwin belonged to a group of industrialists and scientists. They quietly met monthly to promote technology, science, and equality. The so-called Lunar Society. Wedgwood was also a member. So were James Watt and Matthew Boulton who made Watt’s engines. Boulton saw those engines as means for improving England’s standard of living.
The American Ben Franklin even dropped in on them. And Erasmus Darwin ... Well, he was an odd duck – something of a scientist, a mediocre poet, and a very public prophet of the Lunar Society’s ideals.
So, Erasmus Darwin’s son, Robert, and Josiah Wedgewood’s daughter, Susannah, knew each other. In fact, she’d once been his music teacher. So, it’s not surprising that they should join together. Still, they delayed marrying until Robert had finished his training to become a doctor.
And one of their children was Charles Darwin. Father Robert wanted Charles to be a doctor like himself. But it was not to be. Charles neglected his studies of medicine. Instead, he became passionately interested in natural history. He eventually qualified as the naturalist on the famed voyage of the Beagle. The voyage that set the stage for his writing “The Origin of Species.”
But before that, Charles, back from his voyage, got married. And his wife was none other than Emma Wedgwood, a granddaughter of Josiah. The two shared their religious beliefs and concerns. They were both Unitarians who occasionally even attended the Church of England. So, the attacks on evolution by the Church troubled them. But they were both wise enough to recognize that radically new knowledge would not take root in a day.
As we look at Charles Darwin, Josiah Wedgewood and Erasmus Darwin re-emerge. They too had been humanists, looking to the betterment of the human lot. I think it’s fitting to find grandson Charles adding a whole new dimension to that thread. For he now showed us how the dynamics of our animal lot brought our human lot into being.
I’m John Lienhard, at the University of Houston, where we’re interested in the way inventive minds work.
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SOME SOURCES
Lunar Society of Birmingham - Wikipedia
Darwin–Wedgwood family - Wikipedia
Charles Darwin's Children: Facts About His 10 Children
Also, as a matter of interest, the famed composer, Ralph Vaughn Williams, was born in the fifth generation after Josiah Wedgwood. His mother’s name was Margaret Wedgwood.
Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
This Episode first aired on March 3, 2026.