Darwin, Erasmus (1731-1802)

Physician, inventor and writer.

Wrote on several topics in natural philosophy. Shared with Franklin an interest in human speech and language and like Franklin developed a phonetic alphabet.

Darwin’s son, Robert Waring (father of biologist Charles Darwin), visited Franklin in France (1785).

Studied at Cambridge, B.A. (1754). M.B. (1755). Married Mary Howard in 1757; Married in 1781 to Mrs. Chandos Pole, a widow. Issue by both marriages.