Maud Darwin

Martha Haskins, Lady Darwin ( du Puy; July 27, 1861 - 6 February 1947), known as Maud Darwin, was an American socialite and the wife of the English Cambridge University astronomer Sir George Darwin. Biographical notes She was born as Martha Haskins du Puy in 1861 in Pennsylvania, the daughter of Charles Meredith du Puy (1823- 1898), author of A Genealogical History of the DuPuy Family and his wife, Ellen Maria Reynolds, daughter of John Reynolds, an English-born clergyman and his wife, Eleanor Evans. Her aunt, Caroline Lane Reynolds, travelled to England and married Richard Claverhouse Jebb. In turn, Maud visited her aunt in Cambridge. She twice rejected the marriage proposals of Henry Martyn Taylor. However, while travelling in Italy, she met up with George Darwin, son of the naturalist Charles Darwin, who, although a member of her social circle, had commenced his travels independently. They became engaged there. She married Darwin in 1884 in Erie, Pennsylvania, in an wedding lavishly described by The New York Times. The Jebbs were able to join them.