Hensleigh Wedgwood (21 January 1803 - 2 June 1891) was a British etymologist, philologist and barrister, author of A Dictionary of English Etymology. Wedgwood was the fourth son of Josiah Wedgwood II, grandson of the potter Josiah Wedgwood. He was a cousin of Charles Darwin -- whom his sister Emma married in 1839.

For finishing bottom in the classical tripos at Cambridge in 1824, Wedgwood was awarded the first "wooden wedge", equivalent to the wooden spoon. He was also interested in Spiritualism, holding seances and sending a hoax photograph of himself in the presence of "spirits" to T.H. Huxley.

He married Frances Emma Elizabeth Mackintosh (Fanny) (1800-1889) in 1832, the daughter of Sir James Mackintosh and his second wife Catherine (Kitty) Allen, who was sister-in-law of Josiah Wedgwood. It was an open family secret that Hensleigh's cousin Erasmus Alvey Darwin was carrying on with Fanny. They had the children:

• Frances Julia Wedgwood (1833-1913), feminist philosopher and writer known as "Snow".
• James Mackintosh Wedgwood (1834-1874)
• Ernest Hensleigh Wedgwood (1837-1898)
• Katherine Euphemia Wedgwood (1839-1934), married Thomas Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer.
• Alfred Allen Wedgwood (1842-1892), father of J. I. Wedgwood.
• Hope Elizabeth (1844-1935) married her cousin Godfrey Wedgwood.

Partial list of works

• ''On the Development of Understanding'', 1848.
• ''On the Origin of Language'', 1866.
• ''A Dictionary of English Etymology'', Second Edition, 1872.
• ''Contested Etymologies in the Dictionary of Rev. W. W. Skeat'', 1882.

External links

• http://darwin.lib.cam.ac.uk/perl/nav?class=name;term=Wedgwood%2C%20Hensleigh
• http://wardsbookofdays.com/2june.htm Hensleigh Wedgwood and The Wooden Spoon @ Ward's Book of Days