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From J. D. Hooker   [28 September 1863]1

Dear dear friend

My darling little 2d. girl died here an hour ago,2 & I think of you more in my grief, than of any other friend.3 Some obstruction of the bowels carried her off after a few hours alarming illness—with all the symptoms of strangulated Hernia.

Your affectionate | J D Hooker

Kew Monday.

Footnotes

1
The date is established by the reference to the death of Maria Elizabeth Hooker (see n. 2, below).
2
Maria, the Hookers’ second daughter, died on 28 September 1863, aged 6 (L. Huxley ed. 1918, 2: 61). Hooker’s reaction to her death is discussed in Jalland 1996, pp. 350–1.
3
Hooker apparently refers to CD’s extreme grief following the death in 1851 of his eldest daughter, Anne Elizabeth (Annie), at the age of 10 (see Correspondence vol. 5).

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

Jalland, Pat. 1996. Death in the Victorian family. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Summary

Grieves over the death of his second daughter [Maria Elizabeth].

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-4309
From
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Kew
Source of text
DAR 101: 159
Physical description
ALS 1p

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4309,” accessed on 16 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4309.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11

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