When her father went to collect them he was accompanied by their cousin, Caroline Darwin, and also took Charles Darwin, Caroline's brother, as far as Paris, where they all met up again before returning home in July 1827. She was keen on outdoor sports and became a "Dragoness" at archery. At Maer on 31 August 1831 she was with her family when they helped Charles Darwin to overturn his father's objections to letting Charles go on an extended voyage on the Beagle. During the voyage Charles' sisters kept him informed of news including the death of Emma's sister Fanny at the age of 26, and the gossip that his brother Erasmus Alvey Darwin was "paired off" with Emma to avert "an "action" in the Papers" over his "carrying on" with Hensleigh Wedgwood's wife, Frances "Fanny" Mackintosh. When Charles returned he was quick to visit Maer, where Emma shared in the interest of his travels. Emma herself had turned down several offers of marriage, and after her mother suffered a seizure and became bedridden Emma had to nurse her, as well as care for her elder sister Elizabeth, who suffered from dwarfism and severe spinal curvature. Emma Wedgwood accepted Charles' marriage proposal on 11 November 1838 at the age of 30, and they were married on 29 January 1839 at St. Peter's Anglican Church in Maer. Their cousin, the Reverend John Allen Wedgwood, officiated the marriage. After a brief period of residence in London, they moved permanently to Down House, located in the rural village of Down, around from St Paul's Cathedral and about two hours by coach and train to London Bridge. The village was later renamed Downe. Charles and Emma raised their 10 children in a distinctly non-authoritarian manner, and several of them later achieved considerable success in their chosen careers: George, Francis and Horace became Fellows of the Royal Society. Emma Darwin is especially remembered for her patience and fortitude in dealing with her husband's long-term illness. She also nursed her children through frequent illnesses, and endured the deaths of three of them: Anne, Mary, and Charles Waring. By the mid-1850s she was known throughout the parish for helping in the way a parson's wife might be expected to, giving out bread tokens to the hungry and "small pensions for the old, dainties for the ailing, and medical comforts and simple medicine" based on Dr. Robert Darwin's old prescription book.