Charles Darwin and the HMS Beagle were in Valparaiso, Chile for parts of 1834 and 1835.

While in Valparaiso, Darwin stayed with Richard Henry Corfield.

There isn’t very much information about Richard Corfield, and I thought it would be interesting to see how much I could compile. I’m mostly interested in what I can find out about his time in Chile, and where he would have lived in Valparaiso.

 

Richard Henry Corfield was born in January, 1804 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England to Richard Corfield, an ordained deacon and Diana Margaretta Peele.

Corfield and Darwin both went to Shrewsbury School (founded 1552) in Shropshire, England. Corfield entered in 1816 and left in 1819. Darwin entered two years later in 1818, staying until 1825.

According to A History of the British Presence in Chile, Richard Corfield was a shipping agent and merchant in the port of Valparaiso. Corfield seemed to work independently, working without any headquarters or a partner based in the United Kingdom, according to The British Textile Trade in South America in the Nineteenth Century.

The HMS Beagle was in Valparaiso from July 23rd to November 10th, 1834 and then from March 11th to April 27th, 1835.

July 29th, 1834. Darwin wrote to his sister Emily Catherine Langton, from Valparaiso:

R. Corfield is living here, I cannot tell you how very obliging & kind he is to me.— He has a very nice house & before long I am going on shore to pay him a visit; he presses me most goodnaturedly to make his house my headquarters.—

April 23rd, 1835. Darwin wrote to his sister Susan Elizabeth Darwin, from Valparaiso:

I arrived at this place a week since, & am as before living with Corfield. I have found him as kind & good-natured a friend as he is a good man.—

According to Darwin’s diary on the HMS Beagle, Corfield lived in the El Almendral neighborhood of Valparaiso. El Almendral was a primarily commercial neighborhood. Almost the entire area was later destroyed in the 1906 Valparaiso earthquake or by destructive fires directly after the earthquake.

Corfield married Mary Smith on February 15th, 1838 at St David’s Church, Exeter, Devon, England.

He had a son also named Richard Henry Corfield who was born in 1840, in South America, according to the 1961 England Census. He worked as a clerk at the Sankey Sugar Works on the edge of Newton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire. He died in St John’s, Antigua in the West Indies, at the age of 24.

In a compilation of the London Gazette for 1840, there is a notice published dissolving a co-partnership between Corfield and William [Leycester] Cumberlege and Robert Edward Alison, by mutual consent on the 31st of October, 1839. The firm Corfield, Alison & Co was changed to Alison, Cumberlege & Co. They filed for bankrupty around 1847.

Robert Edward Alison was an English author and resident of Valparaiso, who assisted Darwin, providing him with geological observations that he made about the coast of Chile. He later was the managing director of a Chilean mining company. In 2005, the neighborhood of Guayacan, Coquimbo, Chile became protected by the Counsel for National Monuments in Chile. Alison’s home in particular is identified as being of special note, Lira St # 1200, on the corner of Errazuriz St.

Richard had a daughter Eleanor Corfield who was christened May 26th, 1844. There is conflicting information about her age given to the census. In 1871, her age was 25, but 10 years later, in the 1881 census, it was recorded as age 30. She married Edward K Ellison, who worked as a wine merchant, and later as a general merchant.

Corfield showed up in the England Census four times. In 1861, at the age of 56, he was working as a Merchant’s clerk at the Sankey Sugar Works where his son would have been working as well. 10 years later, in 1871, he was a Commercial clerk for an East India merchant. The address given to the census was 109 Falkner Street, Liverpool, Lancashire, England. In 1881 and 1891, his profession was as a retired general merchant.

Corfield’s wife Mary died in early 1892 at the age of 90. Richard Corfield died on April 6th, 1897, at the age of 93, at the Rectory in Llangattock, Monmouthshire, Wales.

Is something incorrect? Have something to add? Please let me know.

I’m still trying to figure out exactly where Richard Corfield would have lived in El Almendral, Valparaiso, Chile.

Two letters that Corfield wrote to Darwin in the Darwin Correspondence Project:

26th & 27th of June, 1835
14th & 18th of July, 1835

There are two Richard Corfields who were born only a few years apart, and that is definitely a cause of confusion. One was Richard Henry Corfield, born in 1804. And then there was a Richard Corfield who was born in 1810.

Sources

I got a lot of information from The Corfield Family Tree. But some of the information between Richard Henry Corfield and Richard Corfield is conflicting, largely due to the similarities in age, as well as the fact that they both headed to South America.

Shrewsbury School register, 1734-1908. Thank you, Internet Archive.
page 31. “Entrances in 1816.” “Richard Henry Corfield, b. Jan., 1804; left 1819; Died April 6, 1897.”
page 35, 37. “Entrances in 1818.” “Charles Robert Darwin … left 1825;”

A History of the British Presence in Chile by William Edmundson.
page 44. “In Valparaiso, Darwin stayed with Richard Corfield, a school friend from Shropshire who was slightly older than Darwin and a shipping agent and merchant in the port.”

The London Gazette, for the Year 1840
page 309. “It is hereby agreed, that the Copartnership existing between the undersigned, In Valparaiso, under the firm of Corfield, Alison, and Co., and in London, under the firm of Alison, Corfield, and Co. was dissolved by mutual consent, on the 31st day of October 1839, as far as relates to Richard Henry Corfield.
R. H. Corfield.
Wm L. Cumberlege.
Robert Edward Alison.”

Thomas Powditch’s Memoirs
“In August I was sent up to Valparaiso in the N.American Schooner “Active” to take the post of a Junior Clerk in the firm of Corfield Alison & Co.  I was then 13 years old.  The firm was after a while changed to Alison Cumberlege & Co.”

Acta Sesion Ordinaria del Consejo de Monumentos Nacionales – Miercoles 9 de Julio de 2008 / Normal Session of the Counsel for National Monuments – Wednesday, 9th of July, 2008.
“Vivienda particular calle Lira Nº 1200 esquina calle Errázuriz: su data de construcción corresponde al siglo XIX, fue propiedad del señor Robert E. Alison, colaborador muy cercano de don José Tomás Urmeneta en la administración comercial de Urmeneta & Errázuriz (sic).”
translation:
“Private home Lira street N. 1200 corner street Errazuriz: construction dates to the 19th century, was the property of Mr. Robert E. Alison, very close partner of don Jose Tomas Urmeneta in the commercial administration of Urmeneta & Errazuriz.”

Darwin Correspondence Project
You can read and search over 7,500 of Darwin’s letters. Complete transcripts of all known letters Darwin wrote and received up to 1869.

Diary of the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle – Darwin
page 235/6 “August 2nd. Took up my residence with Mr Corfield, who has taken the most obliging pains to render me all assistance in my pursuits. His house is situated in the Almendral, which is an extensive suburb built on [a] small sand-plain, which very recently has been a sea-beach. The house is a very pleasant one; one story high, with all the rooms opening into a quadrangle; there is a small garden / attached to it, which receives a small stream of water 6 hours in the week. Another gentleman lives with Mr Corfield;”

The British Textile Trade in South America in the Nineteenth Century – Manuel Llorca-Jaña
pages 67-68. “In Chile, R. H. Corfield, having neither a headquarters nor a partner in the United Kingdom, used the services of agents…”

If I ever manage to get a copy of The Corfields: A history of the Corfields from 1180 to the present day by Justin J Corfield, I might learn more.