Frederick William Dickens (1820 - 1868)

Born 4 Jul 1820 in Kent, England

Ancestors

Husband of Anna Delancey (Weller) Dickens — married 30 Dec 1848 (to 1858) in Prestbury, Gloucestershire, England

Died 20 Oct 1868 at age 48 in Darlington, County Durham, England

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See the Wikipedia Article on Frederick Dickens

Biography

Frederick was born in 1820. He was the son of John Dickens and Elizabeth Barrow. Frederick was the younger brother of renowned Victorian writer, Charles Dickens. He was born in Kent, England in 1820 and was christened on 4 August 1820.

He attended school in Hampstead for 2 years, but could no longer attend when the family fell on hard times. He spent a brief period as a young child (4 years of age) in the care of his family in debtors prison, as his father had been placed in Marshalsea for unpaid debts.

When he was 14 he went to live with his brother Charles. Charles helped find him employment with a publisher and later the Treasury.

At the age of 25 he fell in love with 15 year old Anna Weller and they married in 1848 while he was working as a clerk for the War Office. The match did not find favour with his brother, and caused a rift between them. While Charles had once considered Frederick to be his favourite brother, he now had misgivings that Frederick had inherited the bad traits of his father which would be exacerbated by his marriage with Anna Weller. Charles Dickens knew the Weller family (previously he had been somewhat smitten with Anna's older sister, Christiana) and described the Weller family as: "feverish, restless, flighty, excitable, uncontrollable, wrong-headed; under no sort of wholesome self-restraint; and bred to think the absence of it a very intellectual and brilliant thing." ^[1]Charles considered Anna to be very young, admitted she was clever and good looking, but doubted her wisdom and steadiness which he believed to be essential to marriage. In a letter to Frederick, dated 7 October 1845 he left the decision to his brother, but reminded him that he had limited means to embark on marriage and also commented on the inevitable retreat to a quieter life and how his new bride might not adapt.

Frederick's marriage to Anna was not a happy one (and was childless) and ended in divorce. They had first separated in 1854 but reconciled for a time. In 1858 there was an application for judicial separation with Anna, the Petitioner, applying on the grounds of adultery (which Frederick, the Respondent, denied the facts of the claim). Anna was living with her parents at St Aubyn Cottage in Putney, Surrey, and Frederick was living at 9 Woburn Square, and employed as a clerk, still with the War Office at that time. Anna was awarded costs in 1859, but Frederick did not pay them.

Anna was granted permanent alimony in 1861 of 60 pounds per year, payable quarterly. Fred Dickens had resisted paying any maintenance or costs and refused to pay the alimony, and had left the country to avoid his creditors.

Frederick returned to England, and was arrested and imprisoned for debt. He was placed in Fleet on 4 January 1862 and discharged in April. Fred, in his brother Charles' writings, became the inspiration for the dissolute brother of Little Nell, also named Fred, in The Old Curiosity Shop.

His last years were spent in Darlington in poverty, and he is believed to have been an alcoholic. (His brother Charles reportedly lamented his brother's wasted life [2]).

He passed away at the age of 48 in 1868^[2] in Darlington and was buried in the West Cemetery.

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Sources

• England & Wales Christening Index - Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Christening Index, 1530-1980 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2008. Name: Frederick William Dickens; Gender: Male; Christening Date: 4 Aug 1820; Christening Place: Chatham, Kent, England; Father: John Dickens; Mother: Elizabeth Dickens
• England, Select Births & Christenings - Ancestry.com. England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Name: Frederick William Dickens; Gender: Male; Baptism Date: 4 Aug 1820; Baptism Place: Chatham, Kent, England; Father: John Dickens; Mother: Elizabeth; FHL Film Number: 1469318
• Gloucestershire Marriages & Banns - Ancestry.com. Gloucestershire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1938 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Name: Frederick William Dickens; Birth Year: abt 1820; Gender: Male; Marriage Date: 30 Dec 1848; Age: 28; Spouse: Anna Delancey Weller; Father: John Dickens; Event Type: Marriage; Parish: Prestbury, Gloucestershire; Register Type: Bishop's Transcripts
• England & Wales Civil Divorce Records - Source Citation: The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, later Supreme Court of Judicature: Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Files; Class: J 77; Piece: 13; Item: D16. Source Information: Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Divorce Records, 1858-1916 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Name: Frederick William Dickens; Gender: Male; Record Type: Wife's petition; Petition Year: 1858; Spouse: Anna Delancey Dickens; Divorce Court File Number: D16
• Fleet Prison Discharge books & Prisoner Lists - Source Information: Ancestry.com. London, England, King's Bench and Fleet Prison Discharge Books and Prisoner Lists, 1734-1862 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original data: King's (Queen's) Bench, Fleet, Marshalsea and Queen's Prisons: Miscellanea. Records of the King's Bench, Fleet, and Marshalsea prisons, Series PRIS 10. The National Archives, Kew, England. Name: Frederick William Dickens; Committed Date: 4 Jan 1862; Committed Prison Place: London, England; Discharge Date: 28 Apr 1862; Discharge Prison Place: London, England
• England & Wales Civil Death Index - FreeBMD. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Name: Frederick William Dickens; Estimated birth year: abt 1820; Registration Year: 1868; Registration Quarter: Oct-Nov-Dec; Age at Death: 48; Registration district: Darlington; Volume: 10a; Page: 3
• Darlington Cemetery Index - Ancestry.com. Web: Darlington, England, West Cemetery Index, 1770-2012 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original data: West Cemetery Headstones. Darlington Historical Society. http://www.communigate.co.uk/ne/darlingtonhistoricalsociety/page9.phtml: accessed 28 February 2014. Name: Frederick William Dickens; Birth Date: abt 1820; Death Date: 20 Oct 1868; Burial Place: Darlington, Durham, England; Age: 48; Cemetery Name: West Cemetery; Inscription: In/memory of/FREDERICK WILLIAM DICKENS/who died at Darlington/Oct 20 1868/aged 48 years; Other Info: Brother of eminent Victorian novelist - Charles/Photographed 19/6/2002 [3]
• UK & Ireland Find a Grave Index - Ancestry.com. UK and Ireland, Find A Grave Index, 1300s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Name: Frederick William Dickens; Birth Date: 4 Jul 1820; Death Date: 20 Oct 1868; Cemetery: Darlington West Cemetery; Burial or Cremation Place: Darlington, Darlington Unitary Authority, County Durham, England; Has Bio?: Y; Father: John Dickens; Mother: Elizabeth Dickens [4]

See Also

David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page - Family and Friends

Footnotes

1. ↑ "The Selected Letters of Charles Dickens" edited by Jenny Hartley OUP Oxford, 2/02/2012, pages 159 & 156, see preview on Google Books [1])
2. ↑ Original data for this profile was entered by Chris Beason, Wednesday, October 9, 2013.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Chris Beason for creating Dickens-341 on 9 Oct 13. Click the Changes tab for the details on contributions by Chris and others.