1. John Dickens was the father of the famous English novelist Charles Dickens and was the model for Mr Micawber in his son's semi-autobiographical novel David Copperfield.
16 Facts About John Dickens
1. 2.
The son of William Dickens and Elizabeth Ball, John Dickens worked as a clerk in the Royal Navy Pay Office at Portsmouth in Hampshire.
3.
John Dickens was later transferred to London and then to Chatham, returning to live in Camden Town in London in 1822 to work in Somerset House.
4.
John Dickens found it difficult to provide for his growing family on his meagre income.
5.
John Dickens had eight children in total; his oldest child was Frances Elizabeth Dickens whilst his second oldest was Charles Dickens.
6.
Under the Insolvent Debtors Act, John Dickens arranged for payment of his creditors, and he and his family left Marshalsea for the home of Mrs Roylance, with whom his 12-year-old son Charles was lodging.
7.
Some years later, John Dickens was again briefly imprisoned for debt and was released only when his son Charles borrowed money from his friends based on the security of his salary.
8.
However, on his release from prison, John Dickens immediately wrote begging letters to those same friends of his son asking for money.
9.
John Dickens wrote to Thomas Beard claiming that his son Alfred "is walking to and from Hampstead daily in dancing Pumps".
10.
When Charles Dickens gained fame as a writer John Dickens frequently embarrassed his son by seeking loans from Charles's friends and publishers behind his back and by selling pages from his son's early manuscripts.
11.
Concerned about his father's financial problems, in March 1839 Charles John Dickens rented Mile End Cottage in Alphington for his parents and youngest brother Augustus.
12.
However, John Dickens merely continued to write to Charles's friends and publishers asking for money.
13.
On 31 March 1851, John Dickens died of a urethral infection.
14.
John Dickens depicted his father in the character of Wilkins Micawber in his semi-autobiographical novel David Copperfield.
15.
John Dickens was buried in Highgate Cemetery, where in 1863 his remains were joined by those of his wife, Elizabeth.
16.
John Dickens is played by Jonathan Pryce in the 2017 film, The Man Who Invented Christmas, which portrays the 1843 writing and production of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.