Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809, in Shrewsbury, England. He was the fifth child and second son. His father was a doctor who had a very large practice. His mother was a Wedgewood. Darwin’s paternal grandfather had written “Zoomonia, or the Laws of Organic Life”. His maternal grandfather was Josiah Wedgewood, the artisan-entrepreneur and founder of the Wedgewood of china fame.
Darwin’s mother died when he was 8. He was part of the professional upper middle class, which was to provide him with both professional and social advantages. The Darwin and Wedgewood families were large and open and greatly encouraged Darwin in all he did.
Darwin was schooled at the Shrewsbury School, where he was seen as an uninspired student. He greatly preferred specimen collecting and chemical experiments over the classes stressed by the headmaster.
Darwin was sent to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh at age 16. He did not enjoy it, particularly when surgery was performed without anesthetics. He remained for two years and, while there developed friendships with two prominent scientists of the time. Robert Grant was a zoologist, who introduced him to the study of marine animals. Robert Jameson was a geologist who helped develop Darwin’s growing interest in the history of the earth through the study of fossils.
Darwin was sent to Cambridge in 1827 to study divinity. His religious beliefs at the time were those of the Church of England. His academic record was not distinguished at Cambridge, but he was introduced by his cousin, an entomologist, to a broad circle of Cambridge scientists led by the cleric-Botanist John Henslow. Henslow took to Darwin and encouraged his love of science and gave him confidence in his abilities in the field.
Darwin left Cambridge in 1831, but Henslow’s influence on him continued. Darwin read a scientific travelogue of a scientific journey to Central and South America and, at Henslow’s recommendation accompanied Adam Sedgewich, a professor of geology at Cambridge on a three-week tour of Wales to learn geologic fieldwork.
Henslow also recommended that Darwin be invited to sail as the unpaid naturalist of the HMS Beagle, which was to be a two year journey to survey the east and west coasts of South America and continue to the Pacific Islands. The journey took five years instead of two, during which time Darwin sent back geological and biological specimens. He also kept very meticulous and detailed notes of what he observed during the journey, as well as his thoughts.
Darwin’s letters back to Henslow written during the journey were excepted and read before various Societies, with the result that he had some celebrity in scientific circles even before he returned. He challenged some of the thinking of the time on coral reefs, challenges that met with success. During the journey, he continued to find rocks with fossils and began to ponder about the mechanism whereby new species replaced extinct ones.
Darwin returned in 1836 and was welcomed by the scientific community. He was made a Fellow of the Geological Society immediately and elected to the governing council in 1837. In 1838 he was elected to the Athenaeum, and in 1839, elected to the Royal Society.
Darwin was busy working a summary of his observation during this time. They were eventually published on 1839 under the title “Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by HMS Beagle”. He was also working on “The Zoology of the Voyage of the HMS Beagle”. Privately, he was dealing with other matters, namely, “the species problem” and kept a remarkable set of notebooks filled with his questions and answers, as well as working with breeders, gardeners, naturalists, and zookeepers.
Darwin continued his though on the subject and was influenced by Thomas Malthus “An Essay on the Principles of Population”. This helped him to shift the focus of evolutionary analysis from between to within species. Lamarck as well as Adam Smith had influenced his thoughts.
Darwin married his cousin, Emma Wedgewood, on January 29, 1839. They remained married until Darwin’s death and had 10 children. Two died in infancy, one died at age 10. Three of his sons became noted scientists in their own rights, and another was an engineer.
By 1812 Darwin was confident enough of his own theory to draft a short version. After reflection, he wrote a longer version in 1844, which he showed to the botanist Joseph Hooker. He then spent the next 10 years expanding on his thoughts and after co-presenting a paper with Russel Wallace, published an abstract in 1854 entitled “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.” It was an immediate success and six editions were printed between then and 1872.
Darwin’s theory was generally accepted by the scientific community, but was attacked by the clergy, as thee was no place in Darwin’s world for divine intervention. Darwin continued to write for the rest of his life, focusing on the natural world.
Darwin made his home at Downe into his laboratory where he experimented in his garden, observed the local fauna and wrote. For a period between 1839 and 1856 his household was never without a child of less than school age. He worried about the impact of his ideas on his friend and mentor, Henslow, and particularly his wife Emma, as both were devout Christian. He died at Downe House on April 19, 1882, and due to a petition to Parliament, is buried in Westminster Abbey.
