As the character of a man depends in some degree on the circumstances under which he has been brought up, it will be advisable to give a very short account of the family to which Erasmus Darwin belonged. It is more important to show to what extent a man inherits and transmits his characteristic qualities; for every addition, however small, to our knowledge on this head is a public benefit, as well as spreading a belief in inheritance.

{As the name Darwin is an unusual one, I may mention that in the Cottonian Library, now in the British Museum, there is a large and very rare book, on the History of Lichfield; and in this book the antiquary, Sir R. Cotton, who was born in 1570 and died in 1631, made the following entry: “This Booke was found in the thatch of an House at Clifton-Campville, in the demolishinge thereof. And was brought to mee by Mr. Darwin”. Clifton-Campville is near Tamworth, in Staffordshire. Whether the Mr. Darwin who made this discovery was a member of the family we do not know.}

Erasmus Darwin was descended from a family of yeomen who lived for several generations on their own land, apparently of considerable extent, at Marton in Lincolnshire. The great-grandson of the first Darwin of whom we know anything seems to have been a loyal man, for in his will made in 1584 he [Richard Darwin] bequeathed 3s. 4d.