John Brodie-Innes

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The Reverend John Brodie-Innes (26 December 1815–19 October 1894) was a close friend and correspondent of Charles Darwin.[1]

John Brodie-Innes of Milton Brodie was born in 1815, the son of Colonel John Innes (1763–1836) of Ipstone (or Ibstone) House and Mary Leslie (died 1857) of Burdsbank. Ipstone House is located in the parish of Ipstone (Ibstone), which lies mostly in the county of Oxfordshire but also partly in the county of Buckinghamshire, England. The boundary line of these two counties passes straight through the parlor of Ipstone House. John Brodie-Innes married Eliza Mary Laidlaw (31 July 31 1817–6 March 6 1909) in 1847.[2]

As John Innes he became Curate of Farnborough in Kent in 1842, and made the acquaintance of Darwin who moved to Down House in the nearby village of Downe in the same year. Innes became Vicar of Downe in 1846. Darwin became involved with local charitable organisations including the Coal and Clothing Fund, a savings club to which he made honorary contributions and which he later ran from 1848 to 1869, taking over from Innes.[3]

Darwin also co-founded a Friendly Club with Innes, to which local people subscribed for assurance of assistance in times of financial need, and served as its treasurer for over 30 years, even hosting the Friendly Club’s annual meeting on the lawn of Down House, the Darwin family's home.[3]

In a letter written to Darwin in December 1878, Innes explains how he described Darwin to bishops at a Church Congress in Dundee:

"I have the pleasure of the intimate friendship of one of the very first Naturalists in Europe. He is a most accurate observer, and never states anything as a fact which he has not most thoroughly investigated. He is a man of the most perfect moral character, and his scrupulous regard for the strictest truth is above that of almost all men I know. I am quite persuaded that if on any morning he met with a fact which would clearly contradict one of his cherished theories he would not let the sun set before he made it known. I never saw a word in his writings which was an attack on Religion. He follows his own course as a Naturalist and leaves Moses to take care of himself."[4][5]

Innes continued to correspond with Darwin after 1869 when Innes moved to take up an inherited estate at Milton Brodie, Forres in Scotland, and changed his name to reflect his position as chief of the Brodies of the Milton branch of Clan Brodie.[1][6] The last letter between the two listed by the Darwin Correspondence Project is dated 1881.[4]

Brodie-Innes was the Chaplain to the Bishop of Moray from 1861 to 1880 and again from 1886 to 1894.[7]

His son was the barrister and novelist John William Brodie-Innes.[8]

In the 2009 film Creation Brodie-Innes was played by actor Jeremy Northam.[9]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Innes, John Brodie. nd. "[Recollections of Charles Darwin]". CUL-DAR112.B85-B92. Darwin Online. Retrieved 2009-01-07. 
  2. ↑ Brodie-Innes on thePeerage.com
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Darwin and Innes at Downe
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Darwin Correspondence Project
  5. ↑ 'Church theory evolves to allow Darwin back into the congregation' The Times February 10 2009
  6. ↑ "Brodie of Milton.pdf" (pdf). Clan Brodie. Retrieved 2009-01-07. 
  7. ↑ Innes biography on Darwin Correspondence Project
  8. ↑ The Correspondence of Charles Darwin:, Volume 12; Volume 1864 Cambridge University Press (2001)
  9. ↑ Creation (2009) on the Internet Movie Database

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