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From W. E. Darwin   9 December 1881

Bank, Southampton,

Dec 9th 1881

My dear Father,

I send you a draft for £27.3.3 being the balance of the Lincoln property rent— the proportion of rent up to Aug 26th going to the Executors accnt.1 I also send Higgins account.2

We are delighted to hear the account from Cambridge— It is very pleasant to think of their happiness; I am glad it is a little Erasmus.3

Goodbye dear Father | Your affect son | W. E. Darwin

I had a satisfactory interview with Salt and looked at some of the deeds.4

I have no doubt you Owen Mortgage £20,000 is amply secured.5

1
CD had inherited the Lincoln property from Erasmus Alvey Darwin (see letter to W. E. Darwin, 13 September [1881]). The rent paid prior to Erasmus’s death on 26 August 1881 went into the account being administered by his executors, William Erasmus Darwin and George Howard Darwin.
2
John Higgins was CD’s land agent in Lincolnshire.
3
Erasmus Darwin, born on 7 December 1881 (Freeman 1978), was the first child of Horace and Ida Darwin, who lived in Cambridge.
4
George Moultrie Salt was a partner in the Shrewsbury law firm Salt & Sons; the deeds probably related to property bequeathed to CD by Erasmus Alvey Darwin.
5
CD had loaned William Mostyn Owen £20,000 in 1850 (see Correspondence vol. 24, Supplement, letter to Thomas Salt, 9 February [1861]). Following Mostyn Owen’s death in 1868, the family estate, Woodhouse in Shropshire, was inherited by Arthur Mostyn Owen, who also inherited the loan because it continued to be repaid in half-yearly instalments. The last payment in CD’s lifetime was made on 20 February 1882, after he had turned over the management of his investments to William Erasmus Darwin (CD’s Account books–banking account (Down House MS)).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13541F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13541F