Darwin History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

In ancient Anglo-Saxon England, the ancestors of the Darwin surname lived beside the river Darwen or Derwent in Lancashire. “Over and Lower Darwen are towns in the ancient parish of Blackburn, Lancashire, so called because located on the small stream the Darwen, a variation of the common river name Derwent. ” 1

Early Origins of the Darwin family

The surname Darwin was first found in Lancashire. The baptismal name Derewen was found in the Domesday Book. 2 One of the first listings of the family was found in Oxfordshire in the Hundredorum Rolls of 1273. Years later the Yorkshire Poll Tax Rolls of 1379 listed: Robertus Darwent and Henricus Darwent, walker. 1

“The family home of the Darwins in the 17th century was at Cleaton in Lincolnshire, and at Elston in Nottinghamshire. From this stock sprang, last century, the noted Derbyshire Darwins, to which branch Charles Darwin, the great naturalist, belonged. ” 3

Robert Darwin of Elston (1682-1754) was an English physician who discovered the first remains of a Jurassic reptile in 1718 in a stone from a quarry at Fulbeck. He was the ancestor of the famed naturalist Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882.)