Robert Stewart, Lord Castlereagh (18th June 1769 - 12 August 1822). An unpopular Irish and British senior statesman, his scientific importance lies in the fact that he was an uncle of Captain Fitzroy of the Beagle. Castlereagh's suicide was a considerable factor behind Fitzroy's choice to take a companion on his long voyage - the young Charles Darwin. Fitzroy considered his own temperament, the fate of the last captain (suicide), and his own family history (Castlerleagh). As history records, Fitzroy would end up taking his own life in the same manner as Castlereagh many year later, by cutting his own throat. Some claim Darwin's evolutionary theories were a catalyst for the increasingly fundamentalist Fitzroy. Contemporary engraving with signature bottom right.