Edward Thomas Daniell was born on 6 June 1804 at Charlotte Street in central London, to Sir Thomas Daniell, a retired attorney-general of Dominica, and his second wife Anne Drosier, the daughter of John Drosier of Rudham Grange, Norfolk.[17][18] Sir Thomas' first wife, with whom he had a son Earle and a daughter Anne, died in London in 1792.