Background
He was born in Dale House, Coalbrookdale, Shropshire the son of Edmund Darby, a member of the Darby ironmaking family and Lucy (née Burlingham) Darby.
He was born in Dale House, Coalbrookdale, Shropshire the son of Edmund Darby, a member of the Darby ironmaking family and Lucy (née Burlingham) Darby.
He was a great-nephew of Abraham Darby III. In 1844, he became a major shareholder in the Ebbw Vale ironworks in South Wales. After a series of family disagreements, he resigned his management of the Coalbrookdale Company in 1849, and, in 1851, bought Stoke Court near Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire, and moved to live there. He also acquired property at Treberfydd in Breconshire, Wales.
He acted as a Justice of the Peace in both counties, and, in 1853, was appointed High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire.
In 1851 a new ecclesiastical parish was formed out of Ironbridge and Little Dawley, and Darby became patron of the new benefice, with the right to nominate the parish priest. He died at Treberfydd on 28 November 1878, aged 74, and was buried at the church he had had built in Coalbrookdale.
After his death, his widow became patron of the church benefice and lived until 1902. After that, the patronage remained with the owners of the Sunniside estate until 1959, when it was transferred to the Bishop of Hereford.
He also became a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.