RECORD: Chester, Joseph Lemuel. 1882.05.01. Letter to [George] Darwin. CUL-DAR215.10d. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 11.2021. Corrections by Anne Secord 4.2022. RN3
NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin. The volume CUL-DAR215 contains material on Darwin's funeral, obituaries & related correspondence, & on Darwin's LL.D. degree. 1877-1906.
"Chester, Colonel Joseph Lemuel, 1821-82. American genealogist. Worked on early history of the Darwin family. George's manuscript notes for C are in the Galton papers at University College London. 1855-58 Aide-de-Camp of James Pollock, governor of Pennsylvania, with rank of Colonel. 1858 C settled in London. 1879 Henrietta "My brothers had been having the pedigree of the Darwins made out by a certain Colonel Chester". ED2:237." (Paul van Helvert & John van Wyhe, Darwin: A Companion, 2021)
Colonel Joseph Lemuel Chester died on 26 May 1882 and was buried in Nunhead Cemetery in London. He has a memorial in the south choir aisle of Westminster Abbey.
[10d]
124, Southwark Park Road, London, S.E.
1 May '82
My Dear Mr Darwin
If I had had any reason to feel slighted, your kind letter would have made ample atonement. I have been & am very ill myself, from a disease from which there is probably no recovery, but I could not allow your letter & the occasion to pass without notice. I thank you for the former, & assure
[2]
you of my sincere sympathy. You already know to some extent how I reverenced your father. I think of him now as one who left the world wiser and better than he found it.
Excuse this scrawl. I have not written so much for a month.
Believe me
Sincerely yours
Jos: L. Chester
Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
File last updated 26 June, 2025