Scottish politician Charles Edmonstone owned the plantation on which John lived. During the early 1800s, Charles was visited by his friend and future son-in-law Charles Waterton, who would go on to become a renowned naturalist and explorer.

Waterton took John under his wing and taught him taxidermy or in his own words, ‘the proper way to stuff birds.’ The two would travel together on expeditions into the rainforest and John would learn the skills he would go on to teach Darwin.

In 1817, shortly after travelling to Glasgow with his master, John gained his freedom. In the years that followed, John moved to Edinburgh and settled there, earning a living stuffing birds at the Natural Museum and teaching taxidermy to students at the University.

In 1825, a 16-year-old Darwin came to Edinburgh University to study medicine. He lived with his brother Erasmus on Lothian Street, which happened to be a few doors down from John’s house. It wouldn’t take long for Darwin to realise that medicine wasn’t his calling, struggling to sit through surgeries, which in those days were still performed without anaesthesia.

Whilst pondering his options, Darwin decided to take lessons from John on bird taxidermy to supplement the courses available from the University. To quote from Darwin’s memoirs: