ABSTRACT
Shropshire, England, on February 12,1809, to Robert Waring Darwin II, an affluent physician, and his wife, Susannah, daughter of the promi nent potter, Josiah Wedgewood (1730-1795). His paternal grandfather, Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), was an early evolutionist, whose major published work, Zoonomia, or the Laws o f Organic Life, was an attempt to classify and compare what was known about animal life in order to understand disease. Charles married his cousin Emma Wedgewood (1808-1896) in 1839, and they produced 10 children, 2 of whom died in infancy. Beginning in 1842, the Darwins lived at Down House in Downe, Kent, where Charles Darwin died on April 19 ,1882, following several heart attacks. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
