Joseph Parslow (22 March 1812 – 4 October 1898) was an English
manservant, who worked as
butler
A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some a ...
for the English naturalist
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
for over thirty years. In this role he was variously as head servant, Darwin's
companion,
scientific assistant
A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a pr ...
, and nurse through
Darwin's illness.
Parslow was born in
Standish, Gloucestershire, the son of an
agricultural labourer. He was first employed by Charles and
Emma Darwin shortly after their marriage in 1839, when they lived in
Upper Gower Street
Gower Street is a two-way street in Bloomsbury, central London, running from Euston Road at the north to Montague Place in the south. The street is continued from North Gower Street north of Euston Road. To the south, it becomes Bloomsbury St ...
. In 1842 the family moved to
Down House
Down House is the former home of the English naturalist Charles Darwin and his family. It was in this house and garden that Darwin worked on his theory of evolution by natural selection, which he had conceived in London before moving to Down ...
in
Downe, Kent, and Parslow moved with the family.
Parslow married Eliza Richards, a maid of Emma's, at St George Hanover Square, London on 20 May 1845. They had two sons; the elder Arthur Parslow who became a carpenter and married Mary Anne Westwood, another member of the Darwin household who was Darwin's grandson's
Bernard Darwin
Bernard Richard Meirion Darwin CBE JP (7 September 1876 − 18 October 1961) a grandson of the British naturalist Charles Darwin, was a golf writer and high-standard amateur golfer. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Biography
...
's
wet nurse. The younger son Ernest died in 1856 of
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
.
Darwin enjoyed playing
billiards with Parslow. Parslow retired in 1875, being succeeded by another servant William Jackson. On Darwin's death in 1882, he and Jackson attended the funeral.
He is buried in
Downe churchyard, along with members of the Darwin family.
References
* Various biographies of Charles Darwin
Joseph Parslow Darwin Correspondence Project, University of Cambridge
* http://twojays.info/page3.htm
{{morecat, date=November 2022
1812 births
1898 deaths