Selected letters of Henrietta Emma Darwin

On the anniversary of Henrietta Emma Darwin (25 September 1843 – 17 December 1927), I am happy to introduce a selection of her letters to her family. It is a huge volume with 520 references. I transcribed 54 of them up till 1911. ~ Christine Chua

Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) and Emma Darwin née Wedgwood (1808-1896) married in 1839. They had ten children between 1839-1856. Three of their children, Mary Eleanor, Annie Elizabeth and Charles Waring unfortunately did not live to adulthood.

In the fall of 1842 after the family moved from the Gower Street home to Downe, Darwin’s second daughter Mary was born on 23 September but she died shortly after on 26 October. Annie, whose death was known to have brought the family the most sadness, died in Malvern in April 1851. The account of Annie’s death is published in Emma¹ (1904:2).

Darwin’s last son, Charles Waring, was born on 6 December 1856 and died on 28 June 1858. It was likely the mourning of his last son that prevented Darwin from attending the meeting where papers by Darwin and Wallace were read². This event on 1 July 1858 became one of the most famous and celebrated anniversaries at the Linnean Society and commemorated annually the world over to this day.

Henrietta, Darwin’s third consecutive daughter, was born in September 1843. Though often weak in health, she outlived most of her siblings other than Leonard (d. 1943) and Horace (d. 1928).

In 1851, when Annie was ten and she was seven and a half, Henrietta accompanied her ailing sister to Malvern for water-cure. It was during this treatment that Annie succumbed and was buried there. Henrietta returned home without her. Two surviving notes³ Emma wrote in August 1851 and February 1852 of her conversations with Henrietta indicated that Henrietta had suffered some form of post-traumatic stress over the death of Annie. She felt guilty for the times she thought she had been mean to Annie. Following Annie’s death, Henrietta became the big sister his younger siblings looked up to and her parents very much depended upon.

Darwin’s fall from his horse Tommy is given in some detail at CUL-DAR245.291. Henrietta wrote an optimistic letter on Darwin’s state of health to George on 17 March, but Darwin died a month later (CUL-DAR245.319).

There are two letters which Henrietta talked about going to hear a lecture by Wallace “on the Malay Island” (CUL-DAR245.271) and another “Wallace has written a guise upon sterility with a new element introduced – wh. adds to the complication 10 fold.” (CUL-DAR245.281). Darwin himself wrote to Wallace pertaining to the paper “Your paper has driven three of my children half mad— one sat up till 12 o’clock over it.” (ML 289-90)

In a letter before her marriage to Richard Buckley Litchfield (1832-1903), Henrietta earnestly expressed to her brothers George and Francis

“… my own dear boys you must try to like him for my sake for I couldn’t bear anything to come between our most precious friendships. There are very few sisters in the world who have received more happiness than I have from all of you.” (CUL-DAR245.298).

In another she pleaded for their forgiveness for

“all the times I’ve been cross & selfish & bothering” (CUL-DAR245.299).

George appears to have been her favourite brother. For Henrietta’s state of mind during the months leading to her marriage, see The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, volume 19, pp. 801-807.

In a brief but moving letter soon after her mother’s death in 1896, Henrietta expressed to George her desire to visit Down House for one last time (CUL-DAR246.346). There are several letters where she discussed with George, who had inherited Down House, about what to do with their home following the deaths of both their parents. Emma’s house in Cambridge was sold after her death and Bessy had moved to Cambridge to be near her brothers.

In this selection, letters to Darwin and letters with no mention of Darwin or Emma are mostly not transcribed. The scans of these letters and other letters can be viewed at the University of Cambridge Library, MS-DAR245 and at Darwin Online where transcripts can be viewed alongside the scans.

A great number of letters Henrietta wrote to her nephews and nieces would no doubt offer a deeper understanding of her role as an aunt. Gwen Raverat in her book Period Piece gives a very good understanding and portrayal of Henrietta so there is no need to add anything more save for a quote. Raverat speaking of the hundreds of letters of Emma and Henrietta said,

“…and every single one of them, however humdrum, contains some characteristic and charming phrase; and every one of them also contains dangerously sympathetic references to the ill health of one, or of several, of the family”.

We see this in these letters I have transcribed.

1 Litchfield, H. E. ed. 1904. Emma Darwin, wife of Charles Darwin. A century of family letters. Cambridge: University Press printed. Vol. 2.

2 Darwin, C. R. and A. R. Wallace. 1858. On the tendency of species to form varieties; and on the perpetuation of varieties and species by natural means of selection. [Read 1 July.] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London. Zoology 3 (20 August): 45-50.

3 Darwin, Emma. 1851.08. Memorandum on Henrietta Emma Darwin. CUL-DAR245.475; Darwin, Emma. 1852.02. Memorandum on Henrietta Emma Darwin. CUL-DAR245.476.

The Darwin children
William Erasmus Darwin b. 27 December 1839, d. 8 September 1914.
Anne Elizabeth Darwin b. 2 March 1841, d. 23 April 1851.
Mary Eleanor Darwin b. 23 September 1842, d. 16 Oct 1842.
Henrietta Emma Darwin b. 25 September 1843, d. 17 December 1927.
George Howard Darwin b. 9 July 1845, d. 7 December 1912.
Elizabeth Darwin b. 8 July 1847, died 8 June 1926.
Francis Darwin b. 16 August 1848, d. 19 September 1925.
Leonard Darwin, b. 15 January 1850, d. 26 March 1943.
Horace Darwin b. 13 May 1851, d. 22 September 1928.
Charles Waring Darwin b. 6 December 1856, d. 28 June 1858.