Details about  PEDIGREES OF CHARLES DARWIN*BURKE*[1888]*GENEALOGY/FAMILY HISTORY/LIFE/WEDGEWOOD

*******

BOOK DESCRIPTION: Original green cloth boards.  Large (4to) thin volume - 285mm x 220mm (11" x  9"), 84pp, original photograph of Darwin and 8 plates of coats of arms/bookplates. 1st Edition. [Freeman: A303]

CONDITION: FINE. An excellent copy.  Binding secure.  No inks. Clean throughut.  A very presentable copy.

****************

Sir Henry Farnham Burke,  (1859 – 1930) was a long serving Irish officer of arms at the College of Arms in London.  He was a son of Sir Bernard Burke (who was Ulster King of Arms from 1853 until his death in 1892) and grandson of John Burke (1787 - 1848) the original compiler of the Peerage and Baronetage, the compilation of which Bernard took over. Henry Burke was appointed Rouge Croix Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary in 1880. In 1887, Burke was promoted to the office of Somerset Herald of Arms in Ordinary. On 26 October 1911, Burke was promoted to Norroy King of Arms to replace Sir William Henry Weldon.  In 1913 he was given the additional appointment of Genealogist of the Order of the Bath. On 22 January 1919, he was promoted to the office of Garter Principal King of Arms on the death of Sir Alfred Scott-Gatty.  He held this office until his own death in 1930.

Burke's book, was the only full  pedigree of Charles Darwin's family has never been reprinted and comes up for sale very rarely. This facsimile edition was printed by R.B. Freeman in 1984 and brings together all the known Darwin family Pedigrees.

Richard Broke Freeman (1915 – 1986) was a zoologist, historian of zoology, bibliographer of natural history and book collector. Known professionally as R. B. Freeman, he compiled comprehensive reference works on Charles Darwin and on P. H. Gosse. He was “a meticulous scholar” and a “brilliant bibliographer” who showed “a genuine modesty about his great erudition.”

*********

********** 

Be sure to add me to your favorites list!

Check out my other items!

Sign up for PayPal; the fast, easy, and secure way to pay online.

 I ALWAYS COMBINE POSTAGE for those who win more than 1 item. If you are bidding on more than 1 item there is no need to pay until they've all closed. I now post to trusted customers on receipt of cheques/e-cheques.  Quick payment is appreciated, but let me know if you need time.  If you are unhappy with any purchase please return within 14 days for a refund.  I have a 100% feedback record and always try and describle items as honestly as possible. Please E-mail me with any questions.

Preface

The first and principal part of this book is a facsimile of H. Farnham Burke's Pedigree of the family of Darwin, a work which appeared in 1888, without indication of place or printer, in an edition of sixty copies only.

The compiler, Henry Farnham Burke (1859-1930) had been appointed Somerset Herald in 1887. He became a most distinguished genealogist and was appointed Garter King of Arms and a Knight Commander of the Victorian Order in 1919. This Darwin Pedigree was his second compilation and he was later to produce many more works in the same field. His grandfather, John Burke (1787-1848), was the original compiler of the Peerage and Baronetage in 1826 and the Landed Gentry, 1833-1838. Henry's father, Sir John Bernard Burke (1814-1892), was Ulster King of Arms and took over the editorship of these works.

The book has not been reprinted since and is hard to find. There is a copy in the British Library and another in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, but the Cambridge University Library, the greatest repository of Darwin literature in the world, only holds it in photocopy. In America, the Library of Congress National Union Catalogue records only one copy, their own. No detailed search of other British libraries has been made, but no copy has ever appeared in Book Auction Records and I have never seen a copy offered for sale by a bookseller. The copy used for this facsimile is in the Sir Francis Galton archive in the Library of University College London. I am grateful to the Librarian, Mr F. J. Friend, for permission to use it.

Burke's Pedigree is the only full one that has ever appeared in print. George Howard Darwin, Charles Darwin's second son, was interested in genealogy from his youth and in the eighteen seventies he helped Colonel Joseph Lemuel Chester (1821-1882), an American living in London, to collect information on the family, but it was never printed. Some of his notes are preserved in the Galton archive mentioned above. George's brother Francis, Charles' third son, gives a brief and highly selective pedigree from 1682 to 1882 in his Life and letters of his father (1887, Vol. I, p. 5). He mentions only those Darwins who are referred to by his father in the Autobiography.

Burke's work is unsatisfactory in that it considers only people, men and women, who were born Darwins and anyone who married a Darwin is given only the briefest pedigree. It has often been said, and is indeed true, that Charles Darwin, and to a greater extent his children, carried more genetic material of Wedgwood origin than of Darwin; yet his mother Susannah is described merely as 'Dau. of Josiah Wedgwood...the celebrated Potter'. For Charles' wife Emma, Burke gives no indication at all that she was Josiah's grand-daughter. The work is unsatisfactory for another reason, not of Burke's making; it is ninety-five years out of date.

The second part of this book, called a 'Commentary', is therefore devoted to rectifying these faults, although only a limited part of the family is considered. Some attempt has been made to place the Darwins and their collaterals in their social and geographic background over the past four hundred years. The name Darwin, to most people, means only Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882), author of On the origin of species (1859). Historians who are interested in the origins of evolutionary ideas as well as those interested in the roots of the industrial revolution, and perhaps a few who read didactic poetry, will consider his grandfather, Dr Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), of importance. Three of Charles' sons, Sir George (1845-1913), Sir Francis (1848-1925) and Sir Horace (1851-1928), as well as some of the grandchildren, will be remembered by many now living. The additions affect only a limited part of Burke's work, the antecedents of Dr Erasmus Darwin's wives and those of his children and grandchildren. There are members of two, and in some cases three, generations beyond the grand-children who are now living. These have been ignored except for statements such as '3s2d'. Pedigrees for these antecedents and descendents have been made up from various sources, especially Karl Pearson's Life of Francis Galton (1914, 1930), Gwen Raverat's Period piece (1952) and my own Darwin companion (1978). The complexity of Wedgwood relationships have been cleared by Wedgwood and Wedgwood's excellent book (1980).

This commentary is followed by two brief appendices, the first listing names by which the same people are known in different circumstances, everything from baby talk to bishops, and the second tracing the details of membership of the Royal Society by Darwins and their relations.

The last part of the book consists of the index, an adjunct which is absent from Burke's original. This is intended to be rather more than a simple guide to the names of people who occur in the various pedigrees and in the commentary. Dates of birth and death are given in those cases where they are known, as are titles of honour and a prefatory 'Rev.' for Church of England priests. The Order of Merit, Fellowship of the Royal Society, the Royal Academy and the British Academy are given, with dates of election. Ranks in the armed forces of the Crown have been omitted. Married women are fully entered under their married names, but with cross reference under their maiden names. The object of this index is to provide a quick source of reference to Darwins and their relatives, a source which up till now has not been fully available. A few people who are not of Darwin stock, but who occur in the commentary, are also included. The names of those who appear only in the appendices are not included. A number of names of people whose birth is given, but are not known to have died is given; these are largely from the second half of the nineteenth century and are largely of women. This is because the obvious sources, such as the Dictionary of national biography, Who was who, and the registers of Oxford and Cambridge have been searched, but public records and probate registers have not.

Acknowledgments

A compilation needs the help of many specialists and I have received it most freely from the Library staff here. Above all, I must thank John Spiers who seems as happy checking early references as he is at understanding modern information techniques; Susan Grove has helped with the medical practitioners, Barbara Wells with the law and Gillian Furlong with archive sources. Anne Oxenham, map librarian to the Department of Geography, has checked places and O.S. map references. Peter J. Gautrey has, as so often in the past, helped me from his store of Darwin knowledge and the Cambridge archives. Francis William Darwin, of King's College London, one of the fourteenth generation of the name, has given me names and dates which have not yet reached the printed records. Finally, my wife, Dr Mary Whitear, has straightened my tortuous prose and read everything except the index. To these and to many others I extend my thanks.

R. B. Freeman        
University College London

Sellers: Get your own map of past buyers. Fast. Simple.