Children
| Darwin's children | |
|---|---|
| William Erasmus Darwin | (27 December 1839–1914) |
| Anne Elizabeth Darwin | (2 March 1841 – 23 April 1851) |
| Mary Eleanor Darwin | (23 September 1842 – 16 October 1842) |
| Henrietta Emma "Etty" Darwin | (25 September 1843–1929) |
| George Howard Darwin | (9 July 1845 – 7 December 1912) |
| Elizabeth "Bessy" Darwin | (8 July 1847–1926) |
| Francis Darwin | (16 August 1848 – 19 September 1925) |
| Leonard Darwin | (15 January 1850 – 26 March 1943) |
| Horace Darwin | (13 May 1851 – 29 September 1928) |
| Charles Waring Darwin | (6 December 1856 – 28 June 1858) |
The Darwins had ten children: two died in infancy, and Annie's death at the age of ten had a devastating effect on her parents. Charles was a devoted father and uncommonly attentive to his children. Whenever they fell ill, he feared that they might have inherited weaknesses from inbreeding due to the close family ties he shared with his wife and cousin, Emma Wedgwood. He examined this topic in his writings, contrasting it with the advantages of crossing amongst many organisms. Despite his fears, most of the surviving children and many of their descendants went on to have distinguished careers (see Darwin-Wedgwood family).
Of his surviving children, George, Francis and Horace became Fellows of the Royal Society, distinguished as astronomer, botanist and civil engineer, respectively. His son Leonard went on to be a soldier, politician, economist, eugenicist and mentor of the statistician and evolutionary biologist Ronald Fisher.
Read more about this topic: Charles Darwin
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