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1731-1802
Physician, poet and botanist. Born at Elston Hall, near Newark, Nottinghamshire. His father had been a lawyer, but retired on inheriting the Hall, although money was very tight. Erasmus was educated at Chesterfield, then St. John's College, Cambridge and the Medical School at Edinburgh University. Finding opportunities somewhat limited in Nottingham he set up a medical practice in Lichfield, Staffordshire from 1756. The following year he married Mary (Polly) Howard and they lived in a large house in Beacon Street, at the edge of the Cathedral Close. This is now called Darwin House and is a visitor centre in his honour. He became very successful and was apparently offered a Royal appointment by George III but he decided to stay in Lichfield. The couple raised three sons to maturity, the youngest, Robert becoming the father of Charles Darwin. Mary died in 1770 and Erasmus continued to live in the same house with his sister Susanna, as housekeeper, and Mary Parker, with whom he had two daughters. In 1781 Erasmus married a widow called Elizabeth Pole, and the couple moved to Radburn Hall, near Derby. Erasmus resumed his medical practice and in 1783 founded the Philosophical Society of Derby. It was in this later stage of his life that he found the time and inclination to complete and write his major works. By his second wife he had a further seven children, one of whom was the mother of Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911), scientist and explorer.
Whilst living in Lichfield, Erasmus Darwin moved in literary circles, making the acquaintance of Samuel Johnson and Anna Seward, the "Swan of Lichfield", the latter publishing a biography of him shortly after his death. Although a patchy work, it does give contemporary insight:-
To this rus in urbe, of Darwinian creation, resorted, from its early rising, a knot of philosophic friends in frequent visitation. The Rev. Mr Mitchell, many years deceased. He was skilled in astronomic science, modest and wise. The ingenious Mr Kier of West Bromich, then Captain Kier. Mr Boulton, known and respected wherever mechanic philosophy is understood. Mr Watt, the celebrated improver of the steam engine. And, above all others in Dr Darwin's personal regard, the accomplished Dr Small of Birmingham, who bore the blushing honours of his talents and virtues to an untimely grave.
Many of these visitors were part of a group called the Lunar Society, active from 1765 to 1809, who discussed all things scientific and cultural. The name was derived from the fact that they met monthly in each others homes on a specified day around the time of the full moon. There was no sinister connotation, simply that this afforded them the most light to make their journeys. A favourite meeting place was the home of Matthew Boulton, Soho House in Birmingham. In addition to Erasmus Darwin, recognised members also included Thomas Day, Richard Lovell Edgeworth (the father of the author Maria Edgeworth) Joseph Priestley and Josiah Wedgwood. Erasmus Darwin was himself an amateur inventor, often talking over his ideas with Matthew Boulton, and one of his greatest successes was with an improved canal lock.
In her biography of Maria Edgeworth, published in 1904, Emily Lawless (1845-1913) describes this Lichfield literary and scientific society and remarks that Erasmus Darwin was "a savant who contrived to impart science through the medium of poetry, but whose botany and zoology were apt to be a bide warped by his favourite theories". His interest in botany had led him to construct a garden on the outskirts of Lichfield especially as a basis for his studies. Anna Seward records that on her visit to "this luxuriant retreat" she was inspired to write a poem that, with subsequent editing, became the unacknowledged introduction to The botanic garden (1794-95).
Erasmus Darwin's verse has been described as showing frequent extravagance and incomprehensibility, but with bursts of genuine poetry. It is often very descriptive and picturesque. A collection of his love poems to Elizaberth Pole have survived but his best known work is The botanic garden, written in heroic couplets. Its two parts were published separately, the second part appearing the year before the first. His poetry received some ridicule at the time from critics but was admired by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Lloyd, William Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley.
A system of vegetables, according to their classes...
(1783) [ Translation of Linnaeus ]
The families of Plants with their natural characters...
(1787) [ Translation of Linnaeus ]
The botanic garden. Part I, The economy of vegetation
(1791). Part II, The Loves of the Plants (1789). [ Poetry ]
Zoonomia or the laws of organic life (1794-96)
A plan for the conduct of female education in boarding
schools (1797)
Phytologia, or the philosophy of agriculture and gardening
(1800)
The temple of nature or the origin of society (1803) [
Poetry ]
The Poets's Corner website has the text of Visit of hope to Sydney Cove, near Botany Bay by Erasmus Darwin.
Anna Seward published a biography of Erasmus Darwin in 1804 entitled Memoirs of the life of Dr. Darwin, chiefly during his residence at Lichfield; with anecdotes of his friends, and criticisms on his writings. Charles Darwin also wrote a biography of his grandfather, published in 1879.
There is a website for the Erasmus Darwin House Foundation. The Georgian Darwin House, in Beacon Street, was opened in April 1999 as a tourist attraction and an international research centre for scholars. It features a reconstruction of Darwin's surgery with period furnishings and an eighteenth century herb garden.
Ashton Nichols has written a brief but useful summary of the influence of Erasmus Darwin.
You can read more about the Lunar society on the website devoted to the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter.
The Literary Encyclopedia has a profile of Erasmus Darwin by Ashton Nichols, Dickinson College.
Page created 5 July 2002 and last updated 7 April 2005
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