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 and Elizabeth Allen. He was a cousin of Charles Darwin -- whom his sister Emma married in 1839.[1]

Wedgwood did well in maths but finished bottom in the classical tripos at Cambridge in 1824, for which he was awarded the first "wooden wedge", equivalent to the wooden spoon,[1] and jokingly named for him.[2]

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, his first cousin, the daughter of Sir James Mackintosh and his second wife Catherine (Kitty) Allen.[1] 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.