Ɛpsilon

From Francis Galton   7 June 1879

42 Rutland Gate

June 7/79

My dear Darwin

My sister Emma is with us & I have enquired and learnt about Dr. Darwin’s second wife (my grandmother), various small facts, which are worth sending.1 I had myself heard them before, but they had dropped out of memory; now I recollect them.

She was an illegitimate daughter of the then Duke of Portland & bore the family name of Collier, & was strikingly like his legitimate children.2 She was brought up in thoroughly good society under the charge of a lady Mrs. Manwaring (?Mainwaring) who lived at Farnham, whom my mother knew, & once visited in company with her mother (my grandmother), & of whom my grandmother always spoke with great affection.3 The best surviving authority is Mrs. Harriet Bromley (your whole cousin).4 Her mother told the story to my mother;5 (there were many other corroborations of it).

We have at last an opportunity of getting a photo of her likeness for Emma has heard this very morning from Derby (from Mrs. Woollett Wilmot)6 that the original study for the Radbarn picture of her, exists among the numerous scraps & sketches made by Wright the painter, and now in possession of his great grand-daughter— It is a rough affair, partly in oil partly in water colour— We have permission to get it photographed & I write by this post to order 2 for myself, one of which you shall have, (besides I have made a bid for the sketch itself.)7

The photo of Dr. Darwin ordered long since at S. Kensington, has not even yet reached me—this is the picture that was in the Loan Collection, & which belongs to my sister Mrs. Wheler.8

I have not yet contrived to see T. L. Brunton.9

Ever yrs. sincerely | Francis Galton

1
Galton’s sister Emma Sophia Galton lived in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. Elizabeth Darwin was Erasmus Darwin’s second wife.
2
Charles Colyear, second earl of Portmore, was Elizabeth Darwin’s father; her mother has not been conclusively identified, but, for possible candidates, see King-Hele 1999, p. 126. Galton evidently confused Colyear’s title with that of the duke of Portland.
3
Susan Mainwaring was Elizabeth Darwin’s foster mother. Violetta Galton, daughter of Elizabeth and Erasmus Darwin, was Francis Galton’s mother.
4
Harriet Bromley may be an error for Henrietta Bromley, who was not a cousin of CD’s, but was related to Galton as they shared the same grandmother, Elizabeth Darwin. Henrietta was unmarried.
7
Joseph Wright painted Elizabeth and her son Sacheverell Pole at Radbourne Hall in 1770–1 (see King-Hele 1999, pl. 8a). Wright’s great-granddaughter has not been identified. Wright’s sketch for the portrait, in gouache, was evidently purchased by Galton. It was among a lot obtained by the National Portrait Gallery from the ‘Galton sale in Warwick’ in 1954, and subsequently acquired by Derby Museums for their collection, in which it is now held. A plate of the sketch is in Correspondence vol. 27.
8
Galton had ordered a photograph of a picture of Erasmus Darwin in the Loan Collection at the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum); the picture belonged to Elizabeth Anne Wheler and was probably made by James Rawlinson in 1802 (see Keynes 1994, p. 79).
9
Thomas Lauder Brunton had sent CD information regarding Erasmus Darwin’s anticipation of a medical discovery (see letter from T. L. Brunton, 26 April [1879]).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12094,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12094