He wrote: 'as all the world knows is the prettiest, plumpest most charming personage that Shropshire posseses, aye and Birmingham too.'Įmma herself was at this time engaged with other matters. He was at this time in love with a neighbour, Fanny Owen. Yet he paid Emma no particular attention. On the 17th April 1831, shortly before his voyage on the Beagle, Charles stayed with the Wedgwoods. Yet despite these close familial connections there is little to suggest that there was any great early attachment between Emma and Charles. His black moods terrified the young Charles, who grew increasingly close to his uncle Jos. It was a sharp relief to the constraints of their life at Shrewsbury, where the death of their mother in 1817 had left their father bereft and volatile. Charles along with his brother and two sisters spent much time at Maer Hall. The two cousins had known each other since childhood. Josiah himself had been a supporter of the early stages of the French Revolution (though he abhorred the bloodshed into which it later descended) and his children and grandchildren would also demonstrate a commitment to liberal ideals – in particular towards the campaign for the abolition of slavery.Ĭharles Darwin was the son of Emma's Aunt Sukey. Although he had not managed to instil his passion for pottery into his sons, Josiah had ensured that they grew up with humanitarian ideals.
One family friend remembered that: 'I never saw anything pleasanter than the ways of going on of this family, and one reason is the freedom of speech upon every subject there is no difference in politics or principles of any kind that makes it treason to speak one's mind openly, and they all do it.' Such open-mindedness could be traced back to Emma's grandfather Josiah. Yet more important perhaps was the freethinking and questioning approach that Emma inherited from her parents. Emma was famous for having read the entirety of Paradise Lost as a child. Josiah Wedgwood had left a well-stocked library, covering topics ranging from science to the arts. However, Maer Hall itself provided a liberal education. Her mother had a fairly relaxed view of formal education (she subscribed to Mrs Somerville's view that children should not receive more than ten minutes instruction at a time, as all else after that would not be absorbed) and Emma herself spent only one year at school. As she grew up she proved herself to be an intelligent and interested young woman. So close were the two that their elder sister Charlotte wrote: 'I always think of you as one person.' Their collective nickname was 'Miss Pepper and Salt', though Emma had her own: 'Miss Slip-Slop." Messy, lively and pretty, Emma was a favourite of her family. Her aunt referred to her as 'the happiest being that was ever looked on.' Her best friend was her elder sister Fanny. Yet despite his best efforts towards this end, to the old country families he would always remain Jos Wedgwood, a potter's son.Įmma was to look back on her childhood at Maer as one of happiness and tranquillity. In short, he wished to establish himself as a gentleman. He left much of the running of the Wedgwood factory to others, and in the years following his father's death he devoted himself to farming, hunting and shooting. The Wedgwoods would never worry for money, yet Jos himself was anxious to distance himself from the source of his wealth. In modern terms Jos and his seven brothers and sisters were billionaires. Emma's father, Jos, inherited the Wedgwood factory and all the models and equipment. Her grandfather Josiah Wedgwood had left a vast fortune. Emma Wedgwood was born on at Maer Hall, in Staffordshire.