Ɛpsilon

From W. E. Darwin to John Higgins   30 October [1871]

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

October 30th

Dear Sir,

I have today talked over the Matters respecting Claythorpe with my Father, and considering all the circumstances he agrees with me that I need feel no scruples whatever in declining to continue Mr Gilberts representative as my tenant at Claythorpe.1

Such being the case I shall be much pleased if your son will become my tenant.2 It seems to me to be a very good thing for the progress of farming generally, when Gentlemen will devote their spare time to make a sort of science as well as amusement of the art of farming.

Will you please ask your son to consider the best site for a couple of new cottages, to be built in the spring.

Of course I should supply a cottage rent free for your Son’s bailiff.

My Father wishes to be very kindly remembered to you. | I am, Dear Sir, | Yours very truly | W. E. Darwin

John Higgins Esq

Endorsement: ‘30 Octr. 1871’

1
Higgins had managed the estate of CD’s sister Susan Elizabeth Darwin at Claythorpe in Lincolnshire; she died in October 1866, and the estate was inherited by CD’s son William Erasmus Darwin (Correspondence vol. 14, letter to W. E. Darwin, 8 November [1866]). Joseph Gilbert, William’s tenant at Claythorpe, died in September 1871. He was a bachelor. His representative was presumably his brother and executor, William Gilbert, also a farmer in Lincolnshire. (England & Wales, national probate calendar (index of wills and administrations), 1858–1995 (Ancestry.com, accessed 7 May 2020).)
2
Frederic Higgins was farming at Claythorpe by 1872 (W. White 1872, p. 256).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8034F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8034F