Note
Category
Manuscripts and documents
Date
Unknown
Materials
Paper
Collection
Mr Straw's House, Nottinghamshire
NT 3138492.2.1
Summary
The scrap of paper taken from a letter with a handwritten note on the other side by William Jnr. kept alongside a dried and pressed seed head, two matching plant leaves, three leaves from a tree, three different leaves from trees, a single leaf and a handwritten double sided note all kept together throughout the book 'Principia botanica' by Robert Waring Darwin (1724-1816) (record 3138492). Williams note reads; 'Principia Botanica by Robert Waring Darwin of Elston Hall (1724-18160 eldest brother of Erasmus Darwin See Notts & Derbyshire notes ..... 1898 p174' Robert Waring Darwin (1724–1816) of Elston Hall was an English botanist. He was the eldest son of Robert Darwin of Elston (1682–1754), a lawyer, and his wife Elizabeth Hill (1702–1797). His brothers were William Alvey Darwin (1726-1783), Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), the poet, philosopher, physician, etc., and John Darwin, rector of Elston. He never married and had no children, but his nephew Dr Robert Waring Darwin, son of Erasmus and father of Charles Darwin, took his name. He was educated at Chesterfield Grammar School, and St John's College, Cambridge although he apparently did not take a degree, but became a lawyer of Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn. He inherited Elston Hall on the death of his father in 1754.