From E. A. Darwin   19 February [1866]1

Feb 19

Dear Charles

Thanks for your note & I will when the time comes act upon it.2 My notion was that no money would pass but that you would accept the note as part of your (childrens) share of C’s estate.3 Langton4 however suggests that (with Legatees consent) there need be no distribution till after Susans5 death. I was glad to hear from Caroline that her day dream is to pay me a visit which shows she must have some feeling of strength.6

I have taken a little hint with regard to my own will— I have left the contents of my house with one or two exceptions to you, in order that merely by request to you I can leave any little things & so save my Exōr bother for which I hope he will be grateful, & I have put in George7 instead of Susan as a second name.

I took the opportunity of William being here to coach him a little about where he would find all necessary directions.8

I hear from Susan that George has had some great success—9 I wish you would pluck up heart to come & pay me another little visit. The Jos’s are coming to Elizabeths house when she goes to Tenby.10

Yours affec. | E D

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from E. A. Darwin, 17 February [1866].
2
The letter from CD has not been found.
4
Charles Langton was the widower of Emily Catherine Langton.
5
Susan Elizabeth Darwin was the the younger of CD and Erasmus’s two surviving sisters.
6
Caroline Sarah Wedgwood, CD and Erasmus’s elder surviving sister, had attended Catherine when she was dying (undated letter from H. E. Darwin to G. H. Darwin (DAR 245: 273)).
7
George Howard Darwin was CD’s second son. On Erasmus’s death in 1881, George and William Erasmus Darwin appear to have acted as executors (see letter from G. H. Darwin, 28 August 1881 (Calendar no. 13301)).
8
William Erasmus Darwin was CD’s eldest son.
9
George became an undergraduate scholar of the foundation of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1866 (Cambridge University calendar 1867, p. 400, F. Darwin 1916).
10
The references are to the family of Josiah Wedgwood III, who lived at Leith Hill Place, Surrey, and to Sarah Elizabeth Wedgwood (Elizabeth), who lived at Hartfield, East Sussex. Elizabeth’s aunts, Emma and Frances Allen, lived near Tenby at Cresselly, South Wales (Darwin pedigree, Freeman 1978).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5010,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5010