William Erasmus Darwin (27 December 1839 – 8 September 1914) was the first-born son, and the eldest of all the children of Charles and Emma Darwin, and the subject of psychological studies by his father. He was educated at Rugby School and Christ's College, Cambridge,[1] and later became a banker at Grant and Maddison's Union Banking Company in Southampton.[2] In 1877 he married an American, Sara Price Ashburner Sedgwick (1839 – 1902), daughter of Theodore Sedgwick. William was a great believer in university education being available to all, and championed the establishment of a university college in Southampton in 1902.[2] The Darwins had no children of their own, and after his wife died, William devoted himself much to his nieces Gwen Raverat, Frances Cornford, and Margaret Keynes.[2] William died on 8 September 1914 at Sedbergh in Cumbria. Raverat remembered him fondly as an eccentric and entirely unselfconscious man in her childhood memoirs Period Piece (1952).
There is a story about him at my grandfather's funeral at Westminster Abbey. He was sitting in the front seat as eldest son and chief mourner, and he felt a draught on his already bald head; so he put his black gloves to balance on the top of his skull, and sat like that all through the service with the eyes of the nation upon him.
— Gwen Raverat, Period Piece[3]
William is primarily notable as a subject of Charles Darwin's studies of infant psychology. Darwin was very fond of his son; at his birth he called him "a prodigy of beauty & intellect", and named him after his own grandfather Erasmus Darwin.[4] During William's first three years his father kept a diary of gestures and facial expressions the infant made. The studies were part of Darwin's comparison between animal and human development, after he had already thoroughly studied orangutan babies at the London Zoo.[5] The diary contains observations on the child learning to follow a candle with his eyes after nine days, smiling with his eyes after six weeks and three days, and developing distinctive cries adjusted to specific situations after eleven weeks. He also noticed the development of more profound personality traits, such as reason and, at two-and-a-half years, conscience.[2]
Charles Darwin published his findings in the journal Mind in June 1877, in an article titled "A biographical sketch of an infant". The studies were also an influence behind his work The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, published in 1872. Darwin's work on infant development and child psychology inspired other academics, such as the German psychologist William Preyer and the American James Mark Baldwin, who acknowledged Darwin's influence in his 1913 History of Psychology.[2]
William was a keen amateur photographer, and took several portraits of members of his family.
William Darwin and his wife are buried in St. Nicolas' Church, North Stoneham, Hampshire; having lived in Bassett, near Southampton, Hampshire.
^"Darwin, William Erasmus (DRWN858WE)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
^ abcdeKeynes, Randal (2004). "Darwin, William Erasmus (1839–1914)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/94741.
^Raverat, Gwen (2003). Period Piece. Bath: Clear. p. 176. ISBN 1-904555-12-8.
^Desmond, Adrian (1992). Darwin. London: Penguin. p. 287. ISBN 0-14-013192-2.
^Darwin, Charles (1987). P. H. Barrett; et al. (eds.). Charles Darwin's Notebooks, 1836–1844: Geology, Transmutation of Species, Metaphysical Enquiries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 560. ISBN 0-521-35055-7.
and 23 Related for: William Erasmus Darwin information
WilliamErasmusDarwin (27 December 1839 – 8 September 1914) was the first-born son, and the eldest of all the children of Charles and Emma Darwin, and...
Erasmus Robert Darwin FRS (12 December 1731 – 18 April 1802) was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also...
ErasmusDarwin MA (7 December 1881 – 24 April 1915) was an English businessman and soldier, killed in the First World War. He was the grandson of the naturalist...
Robert Darwin and Susannah Darwin (née Wedgwood). His grandfathers ErasmusDarwin and Josiah Wedgwood were both prominent abolitionists. ErasmusDarwin had...
for Fellows. WilliamErasmusDarwin (1839–1914) Anne Elizabeth Darwin (1841–1851) Mary Eleanor Darwin (1842) Henrietta Emma "Etty" Darwin (1843–1927) George...
Dareste Caroline Darwin (sister) Emma Darwin (wife and cousin) Erasmus Alvey Darwin (brother) Robert Darwin (father) WilliamErasmusDarwin (eldest son) Federico...
edited Charles Darwin's biography of his grandfather ErasmusDarwin, The Life of ErasmusDarwin, and The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, removing several...
Darwin of Elston (12 August 1682 — 20 November 1754) was an English lawyer, scientist and physician. He was the father of English physician Erasmus Darwin...
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography articles on Anne Darwin and WilliamErasmusDarwin in 2005. Keynes family "FamilySearch.org". Retrieved 7 July 2023...
daughters: ErasmusDarwin IV (7 December 1881 – 24 April 1915) was killed in the Second Battle of Ypres during the First World War. Ruth Frances Darwin (1883–1972)...
The Life of ErasmusDarwin is the 1879 biography of ErasmusDarwin (1731-1802) by his grandson Charles Darwin and the German biologist Ernst Krause. Ernst...
Bombay Presidency. His granddaughter Sarah married WilliamErasmusDarwin, the son of Charles Darwin. George Ashburner (1810–1869), a son of Luke Ashburner...
evolutionary ideas included Denis Diderot, Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, ErasmusDarwin, Robert Grant, and Robert Chambers, the anonymous author of the book...
the Laws of Organic Life (1794–96) is a two-volume medical work by ErasmusDarwin dealing with pathology, anatomy, psychology, and the functioning of...
Sarah Catherine Darwin FLS (born 1 April 1964 in London) is a British botanist. She is the daughter of George ErasmusDarwin, a metallurgist, and his wife...
wife, Ann Darwin (1777–1859). Ann was the daughter of William Alvey Darwin (1726–1783) and Jane Brown (1746–1835), and niece of ErasmusDarwin (1731–1802)...
England, Rudolph Ackermann (1764–1834) in 1818 for horse-drawn carriages. ErasmusDarwin may have a prior claim as the inventor dating from 1758. He devised...
Notably, he translated Facts and Arguments for Darwin by German biologist Fritz Müller and ErasmusDarwin by German biologist Ernst Krause into English...
ErasmusDarwin Hudson, (December 15, 1805 in Torringford, Connecticut – December 31, 1880 in Greenwich, Connecticut), was a physician and anti-slavery...
"lunaticks", a contemporary spelling of lunatics. Venues included ErasmusDarwin's home in Lichfield, Matthew Boulton's home, Soho House, Bowbridge House...
Joan Helen Barlow (1912–1954) Sir Thomas Erasmus Barlow, 3rd Baronet. (1914–2003), naval officer. ErasmusDarwin Barlow (1915–2005) Andrew Dalmahoy Barlow...
Graves Commission. Casualty details. Darwin, Erasmus. CWGC.org. Retrieved 15 September 2015. ‘REES-THOMAS, William’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint...
great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin. Darwin was born in 1961 in London. He is the son of George ErasmusDarwin, a metallurgist, known as "Erasmus", and his wife Shuna...