Cousin Charles Darwin, and the Wedgwood family.

Our link to Charles Darwin, and the Wedgwood Family.

The Kempson-Wedgwood- Darwin connection...

{How my mother, Norma would have LOVED discovering this connection!}

In April, 1864. Major William John Kempson married Louisa Frances Wedgwood, in Pembrokeshire, Wales. 

William's grandparents were John Kempson and Mary Boultbee, the brother and sister of our William Kempson and Elizabeth Boultbee, and so the Major was a cousin of our Thomas Kempson.

William KEMPSON and Susannah ROPER

          -William KEMPSON b 1753, Birmingham m Elizabeth BOULTBEE b 1755

                          *   -Thomas KEMPSON b. 1778 m Charlotte Sophia STOKES 1778

          - John KEMPSON b 1761, Birmingham m Mary BOULTBEE b 1757

                            - William Brooke KEMPSON b 1795 m Elizabeth ROBERTSON
                                             - William John KEMPSON b 1835 m Louisa Frances WEDGWOOD b1834

Louisa Wedgwood was the granddaughter of Josiah Wedgwood II, himself the son of the Staffordshire Potter. Josiah Wedgwood was close to Erasmus Darwin, and their families became intertwined by marriage.
Erasmus'son, Robert married Josiah's daughter, Susannah Wedgwood, and their son, Charles Darwin married his cousin, Emma Wedgwood. Charles Darwin was therefore both Uncle and Cousin to Louisa.

On 20th June 1867, Louisa wrote a letter to her Aunt Emma, in which she appears to be providing Charles with observations regarding her new baby's tears.Evidently, Darwin had been making enquiries regarding baby's tears for his work on Expression. The baby she writes about is Jessie Kempson b 1867.

My Dear Aunt Emma,Will you please tell Uncle Charles, that I have been making enquiries in my nursery about the tears. but I can only give him hearsay evidence as I cannot see such small a thing as a tear. My nurse says that tears begin to stand in a baby's eyes when they are a few weeks old & that they begin to run down the cheeks at about 6 weeks. My baby is just 4 months & the tears run down her cheeks in a piteous manner when she crys, which I am happy to say is very seldom. of course I need not say that there was never such a baby since the world began! but I have never seen such a happy, good tempered little soul. The whole house is-(2 pages missing).....my private secretary has gone out boating so Amy fills his place..

www.thedarwinproject.ac.uk

Charles Darwin

Louisa's husband, Major William Kempson, was the brother of a renown Hereford Architect, Frederick Robertson KEMPSON b 1838. Frederick's granddaughter, Rachel b.1910 married Sir Michael Redgrave, and became Lady Rachel Redgrave, actress and matriarch of England's most famous acting dynasty.