Hensleigh Wedgwood

Hensleigh Wedgwood (21 January 1803 – 2 June 1891) was a British etymologist, philologist and barrister, author of A Dictionary of English Etymology. Wedgwood was the fourth son of Josiah Wedgwood II and Elizabeth Allen. He was a cousin of Charles Darwin -- whom his sister Emma married in 1839.[1]

Wedgwood did well in maths but finished bottom in the classical tripos at Cambridge in 1824, for which he was awarded the first "wooden wedge", equivalent to the wooden spoon,[1] and jokingly named for him.[2]

He was also interested in Spiritualism, holding seances and sending a hoax photograph of himself in the presence of "spirits" to T.H. Huxley.

He married Frances Emma Elizabeth Mackintosh (Fanny) (1800-1889) in 1832, his first cousin, the daughter of Sir James Mackintosh and his second wife Catherine (Kitty) Allen.[1] It was an open family secret that Hensleigh's cousin Erasmus Alvey Darwin was carrying on with Fanny. They had the children:

Partial list of works

References

  1. ^ a b c Herford, C. H.; rev. John D. Haigh (2004). "Wedgwood, Hensleigh (1803–1891)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/28965. Retrieved 2010-05-09. 
  2. ^ Bristed, Charles Astor (1852). Five years in an English university. G. P. Putnam. p. 253. 

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