Darwin Correspondence Project

Schoolteacher. Natural daughter of Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802) and Mary Parker Sr. Brought up in Erasmus Darwin’s household. Worked as a governess; in 1794, established a girls’ school with her sister, Mary Parker Jr, on property purchased by Erasmus Darwin in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. Ran the school until her marriage in 1809 to the physician Henry Hadley (1762–1830); brought up two children of her own and her husband’s niece, Elizabeth Hadley (later Greaves).