Catherine Dickens
Encyclopedia
Catherine 'Kate' Thomson Dickens (née
Hogarth) (19 May 1815 – 22 November 1879) was the wife of English novel
ist Charles Dickens
, with whom he fathered 10 children.
in Scotland
in 1815, Catherine came to England
with her family in 1834. She was the eldest daughter of George Hogarth
, who was a music critic for the Morning Chronicle
where Dickens was a young journalist and later the editor of the Evening Chronicle
. They became engaged in 1835 and were married on April 2, 1836 in St. Luke's Church, Chelsea
and honeymooned in Chalk, near Chatham
in Kent
. They set up a home in Bloomsbury
, and went on to have ten children
:
Catherine's sister Mary Hogarth entered Dickens's Doughty Street household to offer support to her newly married sister and brother-in-law. It was not unusual for the unwed sister of a new wife to live with and help a newly married couple. Dickens became very attached to Mary, and she died after a brief illness in his arms in 1837. She became a character in many of his books, and her death is fictionalized as the death of Little Nell.
Catherine's younger sister, Georgina Hogarth
, joined the Dickens family household in 1842 when Dickens and Catherine sailed to America
, caring for the young family they had left behind. In 1845 Charles Dickens produced the amateur theatrical Every Man in his Humour for the benefit of Leigh Hunt
. In a subsequent performance, Catherine Dickens, who had a minor role, fell through a trap door injuring her ankle. In 1851, as 'Lady Maria Clutterbuck', Kate Dickens published a cookery book, 'What Shall we Have for Dinner? Satisfactorily Answered by Numerous Bills of Fare for from Two to Eighteen Persons'. It contained many suggested menus for meals of varying complexity together with a few recipes. It went through several editions until 1860. Also in 1851 she suffered a nervous collapse after the death of her daughter Dora Dickens
, aged nearly 8 months.
Over the subsequent years Dickens found Catherine an increasingly incompetent mother and housekeeper and blamed her for the birth of their 10 children, which caused him financial worries. Their separation in May 1858, after Catherine Dickens accidentally received a bracelet meant for Ellen Ternan
, was much publicized and rumours of Dickens' affairs were numerous, all of which he strenuously denied.
sided with Dickens in his quarrel with her sister, Catherine. Georgina, Charles Dickens and all of the children except Charles Dickens, Jr
, remained in their home at Tavistock House
, while Catherine and Charles Jr. moved out. Georgina Hogarth ran Dickens' household. On 12 June, 1858 he published a self-justifying and cruel article in his journal, Household Words
, explaining the situation.
He sent this statement to the newspapers, including The Times
, and many reprinted it. He fell out with Bradbury and Evans, his publishers, because they refused to publish his statement in Punch
as they thought it unsuitable for a humorous periodical. An even more tactless public statement appeared in the New York Tribune
, which later found its way into several British
newspapers. In this statement Dickens declared that it had been only Georgina Hogarth who had held the family together for some time:
, telling her to "Give these to the British Museum
, that the world may know he loved me once".
Catherine Dickens was buried in Highgate Cemetery
in London
with her infant daughter Dora
, who had died in 1851 aged nearly 8 months.
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
Hogarth) (19 May 1815 – 22 November 1879) was the wife of English novel
English novel
The English novel is an important part of English literature.-Early novels in English:A number of works of literature have each been claimed as the first novel in English. See the article First novel in English.-Romantic novel:...
ist Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, with whom he fathered 10 children.
Marriage
Born in EdinburghEdinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
in 1815, Catherine came to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
with her family in 1834. She was the eldest daughter of George Hogarth
George Hogarth
George Hogarth was a Scottish newspaper editor, music critic, and musicologist. He authored several books on opera and Victorian musical life in addition to contributing articles to various publications....
, who was a music critic for the Morning Chronicle
Morning Chronicle
The Morning Chronicle was a newspaper founded in 1769 in London, England, and published under various owners until 1862. It was most notable for having been the first employer of Charles Dickens, and for publishing the articles by Henry Mayhew which were collected and published in book format in...
where Dickens was a young journalist and later the editor of the Evening Chronicle
Evening Chronicle
The Evening Chronicle is a daily, evening newspaper produced in Newcastle upon Tyne, covering Tyne and Wear, southern Northumberland and northern County Durham. It was founded in 1885 by Joseph Cowen...
. They became engaged in 1835 and were married on April 2, 1836 in St. Luke's Church, Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
and honeymooned in Chalk, near Chatham
Chatham, Medway
Chatham is one of the Medway towns located within the Medway unitary authority, in North Kent, in South East England.Although the dockyard has long been closed and is now being redeveloped into a business and residential community as well as a museum featuring the famous submarine, HMS Ocelot,...
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. They set up a home in Bloomsbury
Charles Dickens Museum, London
The Charles Dickens Museum is at 48 Doughty Street in Holborn, London Borough of Camden, England. It occupies a typical Georgian terraced house which was Charles Dickens' home from March 25, 1837 to December 1839...
, and went on to have ten children
Dickens family
The Dickens family are the descendants of John Dickens, the father of the English novelist Charles Dickens. The descendants of Charles Dickens include the novelist Monica Dickens, the writer Lucinda Dickens Hawksley and the actors Harry Lloyd and Brian Forster....
:
- Charles Culliford Boz Dickens, later known as Charles Dickens, JrCharles Dickens, JrCharles Dickens, Jr, born Charles Culliford Boz Dickens , was the first child of the novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. A failed businessman, he became the editor of his father's magazine All the Year Round, and a successful writer of dictionaries...
, editor of All the Year RoundAll the Year RoundAll the Year Round was a Victorian periodical, being a British weekly literary magazine founded and owned by Charles Dickens, published between 1859 and 1895 throughout the United Kingdom. Edited by Dickens, it was the direct successor to his previous publication Household Words, abandoned due to...
and author of Dickens's Dictionary of London (1879). - Mary DickensMary DickensMary 'Mamie' Angela Dickens was the oldest daughter of English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine...
- Kate Macready DickensKate PeruginiKate Perugini was an English painter of the Victorian era and the daughter of Charles Dickens.-Biography:...
- Walter Landor DickensWalter Landor DickensWalter Savage Landor Dickens was the fourth child and second son of English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. He became an officer cadet in the East India Company's Presidency armies just before the Indian Mutiny...
- Francis Jeffrey Dickens
- Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson DickensAlfred D'Orsay Tennyson DickensAlfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens was the sixth child and fourth son of British novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine...
- Sydney Smith Haldimand DickensSydney Smith Haldimand DickensSydney Smith Haldimand Dickens was a Royal Navy officer; the fifth son and seventh child of English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine.-Biography:...
- Sir Henry Fielding DickensHenry Fielding DickensSir Henry Fielding Dickens, KC was the eighth of ten children born to British author Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. The most successful of all of Dickens's children, he was a barrister, a KC and Common Serjeant of London, a senior legal office which he held for over 15 years.-Early...
- Dora Annie DickensDora Annie DickensDora Annie Dickens was the infant daughter of English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. She was the ninth of their ten children, and the youngest of their three daughters.-A short life:...
- Edward DickensEdward DickensEdward Bulwer Lytton Dickens was the youngest son of English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine and was an Australian politician....
He migrated to AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and became a member of the New South WalesNew South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
state parliament. He died in MoreeMoréeMorée is a commune in the Loir-et-Cher department of central France.-See also:*Communes of the Loir-et-Cher department...
, New South Wales.
Catherine's sister Mary Hogarth entered Dickens's Doughty Street household to offer support to her newly married sister and brother-in-law. It was not unusual for the unwed sister of a new wife to live with and help a newly married couple. Dickens became very attached to Mary, and she died after a brief illness in his arms in 1837. She became a character in many of his books, and her death is fictionalized as the death of Little Nell.
Catherine's younger sister, Georgina Hogarth
Georgina Hogarth
Georgina Hogarth was the sister-in-law, housekeeper and adviser of English novelist Charles Dickens and the editor of two volumes of his collected letters after his death.-Biography:...
, joined the Dickens family household in 1842 when Dickens and Catherine sailed to America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, caring for the young family they had left behind. In 1845 Charles Dickens produced the amateur theatrical Every Man in his Humour for the benefit of Leigh Hunt
Leigh Hunt
James Henry Leigh Hunt , best known as Leigh Hunt, was an English critic, essayist, poet and writer.-Early life:Leigh Hunt was born at Southgate, London, where his parents had settled after leaving the USA...
. In a subsequent performance, Catherine Dickens, who had a minor role, fell through a trap door injuring her ankle. In 1851, as 'Lady Maria Clutterbuck', Kate Dickens published a cookery book, 'What Shall we Have for Dinner? Satisfactorily Answered by Numerous Bills of Fare for from Two to Eighteen Persons'. It contained many suggested menus for meals of varying complexity together with a few recipes. It went through several editions until 1860. Also in 1851 she suffered a nervous collapse after the death of her daughter Dora Dickens
Dora Annie Dickens
Dora Annie Dickens was the infant daughter of English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. She was the ninth of their ten children, and the youngest of their three daughters.-A short life:...
, aged nearly 8 months.
Over the subsequent years Dickens found Catherine an increasingly incompetent mother and housekeeper and blamed her for the birth of their 10 children, which caused him financial worries. Their separation in May 1858, after Catherine Dickens accidentally received a bracelet meant for Ellen Ternan
Ellen Ternan
Ellen Lawless Ternan , also known as Nelly Ternan or Nelly Robinson, was an English actress who is mainly known as the woman for whom Charles Dickens separated from his wife Catherine.-Life:...
, was much publicized and rumours of Dickens' affairs were numerous, all of which he strenuously denied.
Separation
Georgina HogarthGeorgina Hogarth
Georgina Hogarth was the sister-in-law, housekeeper and adviser of English novelist Charles Dickens and the editor of two volumes of his collected letters after his death.-Biography:...
sided with Dickens in his quarrel with her sister, Catherine. Georgina, Charles Dickens and all of the children except Charles Dickens, Jr
Charles Dickens, Jr
Charles Dickens, Jr, born Charles Culliford Boz Dickens , was the first child of the novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. A failed businessman, he became the editor of his father's magazine All the Year Round, and a successful writer of dictionaries...
, remained in their home at Tavistock House
Tavistock House
Tavistock House was the London home of the noted British author Charles Dickens and his family from 1851 to 1860. At Tavistock House Dickens wrote Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit and A Tale of Two Cities. He also put on amateur theatricals there which are described in John Forster's Life of...
, while Catherine and Charles Jr. moved out. Georgina Hogarth ran Dickens' household. On 12 June, 1858 he published a self-justifying and cruel article in his journal, Household Words
Household Words
Household Words was an English weekly magazine edited by Charles Dickens in the 1850s which took its name from the line from Shakespeare "Familiar in his mouth as household words" — Henry V.-History:...
, explaining the situation.
He sent this statement to the newspapers, including The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, and many reprinted it. He fell out with Bradbury and Evans, his publishers, because they refused to publish his statement in Punch
Punch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
as they thought it unsuitable for a humorous periodical. An even more tactless public statement appeared in the New York Tribune
New York Tribune
The New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
, which later found its way into several British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
newspapers. In this statement Dickens declared that it had been only Georgina Hogarth who had held the family together for some time:
Later years
Dickens and Catherine had little correspondence after their separation, but she remained attached and loyal to her husband and to his memory until her own death from cancer. On her deathbed in 1879 Catherine gave the collection of letters she had received from Dickens to her daughter KateKate Perugini
Kate Perugini was an English painter of the Victorian era and the daughter of Charles Dickens.-Biography:...
, telling her to "Give these to the British Museum
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
, that the world may know he loved me once".
Catherine Dickens was buried in Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in north London, England. It is designated Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. It is divided into two parts, named the East and West cemetery....
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
with her infant daughter Dora
Dora Annie Dickens
Dora Annie Dickens was the infant daughter of English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. She was the ninth of their ten children, and the youngest of their three daughters.-A short life:...
, who had died in 1851 aged nearly 8 months.
Literature
- Lillian Nayder: The other Dickens : a life of Catherine Hogarth, Ithaca, NY [u.a.] : Cornell Univ. Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8014-4787-7