John Brodie-Innes

Who was John Brodie-Innes?

The Reverend John Brodie-Innes was a close friend and correspondent of Charles Darwin.

John Brodie-Innes of Milton Brodie was born in 1815, the son of Colonel John Innes of Ipstone House and Mary Leslie of Burdsbank. Ipstone House is located in the parish of Ipstone, which lies mostly in the county of Oxfordshire but also partly in the county of Buckinghamshire, England. The boundary line of these two counties passes straight through the parlor of Ipstone House. John Brodie-Innes married Eliza Mary Laidlaw in 1847.

As John Innes he became Curate of Farnborough in Kent in 1842, and made the acquaintance of Darwin who moved to Down House in the nearby village of Downe in the same year. Innes became Vicar of Downe in 1846. Darwin became involved with local charitable organisations including the Coal and Clothing Fund, a savings club to which he made honorary contributions and which he later ran from 1848 to 1869, taking over from Innes.

Darwin also co-founded a Friendly Club with Innes, to which local people subscribed for assurance of assistance in times of financial need, and served as its treasurer for over 30 years, even hosting the Friendly Club’s annual meeting on the lawn of Down House, the Darwin family's home.