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Emma Darwin (''née'' Wedgwood) (2 May 1808 – 7 October 1896) was the wife and first cousin of Charles Darwin, the English naturalist, scientist and author of ''On the Origin of Species''. They were married on 29 January 1839 and were the parents of 10 children, three of whom died at early ages. == Early life == She was born at the family estate of Maer Hall, Maer, Staffordshire, the youngest of seven children of Josiah Wedgwood II and his wife Elizabeth "Bessie" (née Allen). Her grandfather Josiah Wedgwood had made his fortune in pottery, and like many others who were not part of the aristocracy they were nonconformist, belonging to the Unitarian church. Charles Darwin was her first cousin; their shared grandparents were Josiah and Sarah Wedgwood, and as the Wedgwood and Darwin families were closely allied, they had been acquainted since childhood. She was close to her sister Fanny, the two being known by the family as the "Doveleys", and was charming and messy, accounting for her nickname, "Little Miss Slip-Slop". She helped older sister Elizabeth with the Sunday school which was held in Maer Hall laundry, writing simple moral tales to aid instruction and giving 60 village children their only formal training in reading, writing and religion. The Wedgwoods visited Paris for six months in 1818. Though Emma was only 10 at the time, the strangeness and interest of arriving in France remained in her memory. In January 1822 the 13-year-old Emma and her sister Fanny were taken by their mother for a year at Mrs Mayer's school at Greville House, on Paddington Green, London, at what was then the semi-rural village of Paddington. Emma was by then "one of the show performers on the piano", to the extent that on one occasion she was invited along to play for George IV's Mrs Fitzherbert. After this time, Emma was taught by her elder sisters as well as tutors in some subjects. For the rest of her life Emma continued to be a fine pianist, with a tendency to speed up slow movements. She had piano lessons from Moscheles, and allegedly "two or three" from Chopin. In 1825 Josiah took his daughters on a grand tour of Europe, via Paris to near Geneva to visit their Aunt Jessie (Madame de Sismondi, née Allen, wife of the historian Jean Charles Leonard de Sismondi) and then on In the following year the Sismondis visited Maer, then took Emma and her sister Fanny back to near Geneva to stay with them for eight months. When her father went to collect them he was accompanied by their cousin, Caroline Darwin, and also took Charles Darwin, Caroline's brother, as far as Paris, where they all met up again before returning home in July 1827. She was keen on outdoor sports and became a "Dragoness" at archery. At Maer on 31 August 1831 she was with her family when they helped Charles Darwin to overturn his father's objections to letting Charles go on an extended voyage on the Beagle. During the voyage Charles' sisters kept him informed of news including the death of Emma's sister Fanny at the age of 26, and the gossip that his brother Erasmus Alvey Darwin was "paired off" with Emma to avert "an ''action'' in the Papers" over his "carrying on" with Hensleigh Wedgwood's wife, Fanny. When Charles returned and was quick to visit Maer, she joined in the interest in his travels. Emma herself had turned down several offers of marriage, but after her mother suffered a seizure and became bedridden Emma had to nurse her as well as care for her elder sister Elizabeth who suffered from dwarfism and severe spinal curvature. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Emma Darwin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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