Derby Philosophical Society

Another, earlier coterie involved Whitehurst, and it is assumed the artist Joseph Wright, his friend Peter Perez Burdett and Rev.

[7] The society met at the King's Head Inn in the Cornmarket in Derby not far from Darwin's house at 3, Full Street.

The records of the club exist, but frequently refer to people only by surname; many of the members, like Darwin, were associated with medicine.

About half of the membership was medical like William Brooks Johnson MD, but others included men of great influence like Sir Robert Wilmot, the engineer Jedediah Strutt, the poet and gentleman Sir Brooke Boothby, the chemist Charles Sylvester, and landowners Charles Hurt, Reverend D'Ewes Coke and Thomas Evans.

Significantly it was Spencer who coined the phrase "survival of the fittest", after he read Darwin's grandson's work on evolution.

[13][14][15] Other notable associates of the society were James Pilkington, the radical minister and the author of A View of Derbyshire; and Abraham Bennet, though he was never a member.

Although this house is now demolished a plaque was placed on the site in 2002 to recognise Darwin's contribution and that he had founded the Derby Philosophical Society.