Her grandfather Josiah Wedgwood had made his fortune in pottery, and like many others who were not part of the aristocracy, they were nonconformist, belonging to the Unitarian church.

[2] She was close to her sister Fanny, the two being known by the family as the "Doveleys", and was charming and messy, accounting for her nickname, "Little Miss Slip-Slop".

Emma was by then "one of the show performers on the piano", to the extent that on one occasion she was invited along to play for George IV's Mrs Fitzherbert.

In the following year the Sismondis visited Maer, then took Emma and her sister Fanny back to near Geneva to stay with them for eight months.

[2]: 57–58 Emma Wedgwood accepted Charles' marriage proposal on 11 November 1838 at the age of 30, and they were married on 29 January 1839 at St. Peter's Anglican Church in Maer.

[8] Charles and Emma raised their 10 children in a distinctly non-authoritarian manner, and several of them later achieved considerable success in their chosen careers: George, Francis and Horace became Fellows of the Royal Society.

By the mid-1850s she was known throughout the parish for helping in the way a parson's wife might be expected to, giving out bread tokens to the hungry and "small pensions for the old, dainties for the ailing, and medical comforts and simple medicine" based on Dr. Robert Darwin's old prescription book.

[citation needed] In a letter dated 5 July 1844, Charles Darwin entrusted to Emma the responsibility of publishing his work, in the case of his sudden death.

Again he discussed his ideas, and about ten days later she wrote to him: "When I am with you I think all melancholy thoughts keep out of my head but since you are gone some sad ones have forced themselves in, of fear that our opinions on the most important subject should differ widely.

[13] The letter shows Emma's tension between her fears that differences of belief would separate them, and her desire to be close and openly share ideas.

[11] The passage in the Gospel of John referred to in Emma's letter says "Love one another" (13:34), then describes Jesus saying "I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (14:6).

[14] As disbelief later gradually crept over Darwin, he could "hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished.

They socialised with the Unitarian clergymen James Martineau and John James Tayler, and read their works as well as those of other Unitarian and liberal Anglican authors such as Francis William Newman whose Phases of faith described a spiritual journey from Calvinism to theism, all part of widespread and heated debate on the authority of Anglicanism.

In Downe Emma attended the Anglican village church, but as a Unitarian had the family turn round in silence when the Trinitarian Nicene Creed was recited.

[17][18] The Grove is now the central building of Fitzwilliam College,[19] and provides common room facilities for graduates, Fellows and senior members.

After local residents and academics expressed concern and there was a campaign against the demolition, the college council decided to reconsider possible alternative uses;[21] their decision at the end of September 2009 was to keep and refurbish Grove Lodge.

[22][23] Architects, consultants and builders were appointed for conversion work,[24] which when completed in September 2011 provided five new studies for Fellows.