Ɛpsilon

To Francis Galton   10 June [1879]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

June 10th

My dear Galton

Very many thanks for your notes. I am uncommonly glad to hear of any & every justification of our grandfather.2

I never heard a word or saw any expression on my Father’s countenance, showing that he expected his father to leave him a farthing of his own earnings; but he certainly thought that he had not been treated fairly about his share of his mother’s fortune.3 Why that was not settled, passes my comprehension, considering that Mr. Howard was a solicitor.4 But the subject is not worth another thought & I shall make no allusion to it in my short notice.— It is very surprising that our grandfather, considering how hard he worked, did not make more money.— I have found one memorandum in my Fathers handwriting of his Father having lost at least 1500£ in some iron-works.5 Perhaps he made other bad speculations.—

Ever yours very truly | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the memorandum from Francis Galton, 9 June 1879.
2
Galton had given reasons why Erasmus Darwin had not bequeathed anything to CD’s father, Robert Waring Darwin (see memorandum from Francis Galton, 9 June 1879).
3
Robert Waring Darwin’s mother was Mary Darwin.
4
Mary Darwin’s father was Charles Howard. At her marriage, Howard settled £1000 on Mary. Mary predeceased her father; Howard left £1000 in trust to Erasmus’s sons (King-Hele 1999, pp. 31, 104–5).
5
Erasmus had borrowed some money from Howard to invest in the Wychnor Ironworks; Howard added it to the sum owed to him by Erasmus in his legacy to Erasmus’s sons (King-Hele 1999, pp. 52, 105). Erasmus’s loss when the ironworks were sold was £1500, according to Robert Waring Darwin (ibid., pp. 108, 177).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.2 own] interl
2.8 in … Father] interl above del ‘of his’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12100,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12100