Frances Elizabeth (Fanny) Dickens was the elder sister of
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
, a pianist and singer who trained at the
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke ...
.
Early life and career
Born in
Landport on 28 August 1810 and baptised on 23 November at
St Mary's Church, Portsea, she was the eldest of eight children of
Elizabeth Dickens, ''née'' Barrow, and
John Dickens
John Dickens (21 August 1785 – 31 March 1851) was the father of famous English novelist Charles Dickens and was the model for Mr Micawber in his son's semi-autobiographical novel '' David Copperfield''.
Biography
The son of William Dickens ...
, a clerk in the
Navy Pay Office.
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
was the second child of the family, born in 1812.
Dickens showed musical ability and in 1823 gained a place at the
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke ...
which had opened the year before in Tenterden Street, off Hanover Square. The fees were thirty-eight guineas a year which her family could ill afford but, unusually for the time, they paid for a daughter to be educated rather than their sons.
Dickens studied singing, and piano with
Ignaz Moscheles, a former pupil of
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
. In her second year she received a prize for ‘good conduct and improvement in music’ and a silver pencil case as 2nd prize in piano. In 1835 she sang in a concert as part of a group which included Henry Burnett, who had studied at the Academy. They married on 13 September 1837 at
St Luke's Church, Chelsea, where Charles Dickens had married
Catherine Hogarth the year before.
Personal life
The couple had two sons: Henry Augustus in 1839, and Charles Dickens Kneller in 1841, both born in London. Henry Jr was a disabled and sickly child and is said to have been the inspiration for
Tiny Tim in Charles Dickens’s ''
A Christmas Carol
''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. ''A Christmas ...
''.
The family moved to Manchester, where Dickens and Henry continued their singing, although "once Fanny Dickens had married and become a mother, her career declined, gifted and musically educated as she was".
[ She developed ]tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, ...
and moved, with the family, back to London for treatment, but died on 2 September 1848 after a lingering illness at the age of 38. She was buried in the dissenters section of the western side of Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...
. Their son Henry died soon after in 1849 and is buried with his mother. Her parents are buried nearby in the cemetery, as are other members of the Dickens family
The Dickens family are the descendants of John Dickens, the father of the English novelist Charles Dickens. John Dickens was a clerk in the Royal Navy Pay Office and had eight children from his marriage to Elizabeth Barrow. Their second child and ...
.
See also
*Dickens family
The Dickens family are the descendants of John Dickens, the father of the English novelist Charles Dickens. John Dickens was a clerk in the Royal Navy Pay Office and had eight children from his marriage to Elizabeth Barrow. Their second child and ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickens, Fanny
1810 births
1848 deaths
Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music
19th-century British women singers
Burials at Highgate Cemetery