John Dickens - Later Years

Later Years

Later he became a journalist, and in 1828 a parliamentary reporter, like his famous son before him. When Charles Dickens gained fame as a writer John Dickens frequently embarrassed his son by seeking loans from Charles' friends and publishers behind his back, and by selling pages from his son's early manuscripts. Concerned about his father's financial problems, Charles Dickens rented a cottage for his parents far from London, and, as he thought, far from temptation, at Alphington in Devon. However, John Dickens merely continued to write to Charles' friends and publishers asking for money. Eventually, he and his wife returned to London.

On March 31, 1851, John Dickens died after undergoing surgery without anesthesia. According to a letter that Charles Dickens sent to his wife, John Dickens had been suffering from a bladder disease but had kept the condition secret until little could be done. After the surgery, John Dickens lingered for several days before he died. The death certificate listed the cause of death as: "Rupture of the urethra from old standing stricture and consequent mortification of the scrotum from infiltration of urine."

Dickens depicted his father in the character of Wilkins Micawber in his semi-autobiographical novel David Copperfield.

John Dickens is buried with his wife Elizabeth in Highgate Cemetery.