Catherine Hogarth Dickens

1815 - 1879

The eldest daughter of George and Georgina Hogarth.  She was born in Scotland
on 19 May 1815 and came to England with her family in 1834.

 Through her father's journalistic connections she was introduced to Dickens, who was then
writing sketches for the Morning Chronicle, of which her father was music critic.  

Charles asked Catherine to marry him in 1835.  They were married on 2 April 1836
in St. Luke's Church, Chelsea and honeymooned in Chalk, near Chatham.  

Dickens found Catherine an incompatible partner, blamed her,
completely unreasonably, for the birth of their ten children,
and turned over the housekeeping to her sister Georgina.
In 1858 their widely publicised separation took place.
From that time until Dickens's death they remained estranged,
Catherine living with her eldest son, Charley, but she remained
attached and loyal to her husband and to his memory
until her own death from cancer.  

On her deathbed in 1879 she gave her collection of Dickens' letters
to daughter Kate instructing her to "Give these to the British Museum,
that the world may know he loved me once".

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