May 25, 2017. lk42. Eventually, John was sent to prison for debt in 1824, when Charles was just 12 years old. Then on the 2 August 1825, Jonathan Warren died, and the following small item appeared in the newspapers: Sudden death this morning [of Jonathan Warren]fell forwards on some bottles in the shop and expired. They dont write newspapers like that anymore. All of this activity that Ive described to you is described in the pleadings. John Dickens was arrested and sent to the Marshalsea prison for for failure to pay a debt. That is the completion of my talk. In 1823, a young boy started work at Warrens Blacking Factory, on Hungerford Stairs in The Strand, London. Such a situation, not surprisingly, ended in the Chancery court, with Woodd seeking to restrain Lamert, and Robert Warren seeking to restrain both Woodd and Lamert. This book tells us that, in summary, there are five main categories to the collection: the proceedings, which are statements made by the parties to each case the names in the headings of those proceedings are indexed in the National Archives online catalogue. At the time of the death, Woodd was in Ireland and Lamert found himself running everything, by himself. He describes his separation from his family, who were in the Marshalsea prison, how he wandered the streets on his own, how he had to feed and fend for himself. Nobody else could, or at least did, corroborate or contradict his story. Dickens himself wrote: I have no idea how long it lasted, whether for a year, or much more, or less. Biographers of Dickens, and that includes myself, have calculated that he started within days of his 12th birthday, in February 1824. He asked Christopher Huffam, rigger to His Majesty's Navy, gentleman, and head of an established firm, to act as godfather to Charles. John Dickens was arrested and sent to the Marshalsea prison for for failure to pay a debt. If you wish to re-use any part of a podcast, please note that copyright in the podcasts and transcripts in some cases belongs to the speakers, not to the Crown. Then theres the evidence which is sworn by witnesses produced by the parties, decrees and orders given by the court in the progress of a suit, Chancery Masters reports, and accounts and final decrees and appeals. It was a shoe polish factory where Charles worked long hours attaching labels on pots of blacking. In 1816, Robert Warren moved from his premises in St. Martins Lane to number 30 in the Strand, and much was made of this address on the packaging and the advertising of his product. I suppose people today do have labels from the 1950s and the 1940s and the 1930s, but to go back 180 years is absolutely astonishing. Then, in an evil hour for me, Charles was offered work at Warrens Blacking Factory at six shillings a week, or about $1.40. Charles Dickens begins working at Warren's Blacking Factory Just before his father's arrest, 12-year-old Dickens had begun working ten-hour days at Warren's Blacking Warehouse, on Hungerford Stairs, near the present Charing Cross railway station. Nor was his concern for children confined to his novels; he gave speeches, he wrote articles for newspapers and letters to those with influence. After 3 years of working in the factory Dickens was sent back to school, but his experience was never forgotten, so he decided to use his past to write two novels.(Ibid). Rowland Hill - WC1 (Marchmont Association), 2021 London Remembers, All Rights Reserved. These events traumatised the young Dickens, and greatly influenced his future work. It was quite nasty. This was the site of the blacking factory where Dickens worked, aged 12 or 13, when his father was put in the Marshalsea prison for debt. Charles job at the factory was to cover the bottles of paste-blacking and to make the bottle look smart with paper and labels so that they could be sold in apothecaries. See our help guide for more information on podcast subscription. When Thomas died in 1805, his son Robert took over the business, and intense rivalry arose between Jonathan and his nephew Robert, and it persisted for 20 years, exacerbated because they both promoted themselves as Warrens Blacking. Jonathan Warren continued to operate the production side of the business, and Woodd engaged a clerk to manage the office. In September of that same year, Jonathan Warren placed a small ad in the Times, seeking a partner, and 12 months later he entered into an agreement with William Edward Woodd, with the unusual spelling of Woodd. With unconcealed detestation, he describes the premises at Hungerford Stairs where the blacking factory was located. For more than a half century, students of Dickens have emphasized the crucial importance of the traumatic period in his life when his parents suddenly removed him from school and their middle-class, more-or-less genteel environment, made him live apart from the family, and forced him to work at Warren's Shoeblacking factory and warehouse. His mother taught him, including some Latin. He wasnt there for long, and eventually he took his son away from the blacking factory, and he sent him back to school. The millions of Chancery documents held at the National Archives open a window into the lives and worries of people from the 14th to the 19th centuries. Charles Dickens was significantly inspired by all of the hard labor he had endured and after writing his first two novels. Dickens described how much he enjoyed the company of this son of his relative. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Charles mother (Elizabeth), and seven siblings were sent away in hopes of a better life, but Charles, being the eldest boy, was sent to work in a blacking factory. Charles Day, of the blacking firm Day and Martin, left 350,000 when he died in 1836. I wasnt looking for it. Dickens had a widowed aunt who lived with the family when they were in Chatham, his mothers sister Mary this was, and in 1821 while they were at Chatham, Mary remarried, this time to somebody called Matthew Lamert, an army surgeon. Its absolutely astounding how theyve managed to survive in such pristine condition, considering what they were; they were just labels. The younger man taking the burden of the responsibility was the cause of an argument between Lamert and Woodd, erupting in October 1824, and they parted company. Dickens was scathing about the institution. He earned six As Forbes notes, Dickens' father, John Dickens, was a man who struggled his whole life to make a living and provide for his family. The Lumires' friend, Felicien Trewey, a French music hall entertainer alread Register to receive email updates whenever we publish new memorials. On February 9th, 1824, twelve year old Charles Dickens was suddenly removed from school and sent to work at the Warren Blacking Factory. The coming together of Warren, Woodd and Lamert was a strange mix. What did Charles Dickens care about? In Chancery proceedings, this is an official document; he needs to give his proper name: George. Now, boot blacking, or shoe polish as we say now, was big business in the first quarter of the 19th century. Charlie & the Blacking Factory. But his most famous attack on Chancery, its expense, its tangled bureaucracy, its slowness, came in Bleak House, and in the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which dragged on for years. John Dickens was eventually released from prison after receiving an inheritance, and Charles could then leave the misery of the blacking factory. What Ive got to say to you today is all new information, a lot of new information. The story of Dickens, sent as a boy to work in a blacking factory for about a year while his father, with the rest of his family, was housed in debtor's prison, is legendary. Ive had to change my mind; it couldnt have been March 1825 because Woodd and Lamert broke up in October 1824, so it couldnt have gone on as long as Ive said. Charles Dickens - blacking factory. Labelling of the three products of the three companies, and their advertising, was so similar it could only be intended to confuse the customer. Dickenss books dealt with the damage done to children, their need for education, and the effect on them of poverty. May 22, 2016. He shared with his wife what he had written but nobody else, and he passed his secret to his friend and designated biographer, John Forster. He created the Artful Dodger, and the rest of Fagins children in Oliver Twist, then Smike and the other boys at Dotheboys Hall, in Nicholas Nickleby. He describes the misery of a child with a vivid imagination carrying out a dirty, repetitive, dreary job from morning till night, eight oclock in the morning to six oclock at night, ten hours a day, Monday to Saturday, washing and putting labels on thousands of pots of blacking. Thats an afterthought of Dickens in the blacking warehouse; this wasnt drawn or published until the 1890s, until people obviously knew about it. Now Dickenss own account of his time at Warrens Blacking is a highly emotional account. As early as 1808, Robert Warren placed advertisements like this in newspapers, warning against his uncles product. When the family finances were put at least partly to rights and his father was released, the twelve-year-old Dickens, already scarred psychologically by the experience, was further wounded by his mother's insistence that he continue to work at the factory. Then in 1844 when he was famous and a writer, those feelings were enforced when he obtained an injunction from the court to prevent a pirated edition of A Christmas Carol. Where did Charles work when his father was in debtors prison? Another Chancery document Ive found shows that one of Lamerts sisters, Hannah, was the wife of William Edward Woodd. Jonathan Warren was the old hand, Woodd was aged just 25, and Lamert was only 20. Charles Dickens and the Boot Blacking Warehouse. When he was 12, Dickens' was sent to work at Warren's Blacking Warehouse, where he applied labels to bottles of blacking, for about eight months. He had books to read. Three months later, in January 1825, Lamert had set up his own blacking business, located in Whitechapel, and Woodd had moved away from Covent Garden to Noble Street near the City of Londons Guildhall. Lamert was a name I knew and I was looking for; Woodd I didnt know. Its not until we examine the Masters reports and certificates that the progress of the case can be discovered. My calculation has been what Dickensians, for the last 20 years at least, have based their understanding of how long Dickens was there for. Required fields are marked *.