Erasmus Robert Darwin (12 December 1731 – 18 April 1802) was an English polymath active as a physician, physiologist, botanist, biologist, physicist, metaphysician, inventor and poet who is commonly associated with the Midlands Enlightenment in addition to British abolitionism.
His poems included much natural history, including a statement of evolution and the relatedness of all forms of life.
He was a member of the Darwin–Wedgwood family, which includes his grandsons Charles Darwin and Francis Galton. Darwin was a founding member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, a discussion group of pioneering industrialists and natural philosophers.
He turned down an invitation from George III to become Physician to the King.
Darwin was born in 1731 at Elston Hall, Nottinghamshire, near Newark-on-Trent, England, the youngest of seven children of Robert Darwin of Elston (1682–1754), a lawyer and physician, and his wife Elizabeth Hill (1702–97). The name Erasmus had been used by a number of his family and derives from his ancestor Erasmus Earle, Common Sergent of England under Oliver Cromwell. His siblings were:
Robert Waring Darwin of Elston (17 October 1724 – 4 November 1816)
Elizabeth Darwin (15 September 1725 – 8 April 1800)
William Alvey Darwin (3 October 1726 – 7 October 1783)
Anne Darwin (12 November 1727 – 3 August 1813)
Susannah Darwin (10 April 1729 – 29 September 1789)
Rev. John Darwin, rector of Elston (28 September 1730 – 24 May 1805)
He was educated at Chesterfield Grammar School, then later at St John's College, Cambridge. He obtained his medical education at the University of Edinburgh Medical School.
Darwin settled in 1756 as a physician at Nottingham, but met with little success and so moved the following year to Lichfield to try to establish a practice there. A few weeks after his arrival, using a novel course of treatment, he restored the health of a young fisherman whose death seemed inevitable. This ensured his success in the new locale. Darwin was a highly successful physician for more than fifty years in the Midlands. In 1761, he was elected to the Royal Society. George III invited him to be Royal Physician, but Darwin declined.
Darwin married twice and had 14 children, including two illegitimate daughters by an employee, and, possibly, at least one further illegitimate daughter.
In 1757 he married Mary (Polly) Howard (1740–1770), the daughter of Charles Howard, a Lichfield solicitor. They had four sons and one daughter, two of whom (a son and a daughter) died in infancy:
Charles Darwin (1758–1778), uncle of the naturalist
Elizabeth Darwin (1763, survived 4 months)
Robert Waring Darwin (1766–1848), father of the naturalist Charles Darwin