Panel C7
Chatterton in Shoreditch
25 April 1770 - 31 May 1770
Age 17, Lodging with Mrs Ballance
St Leonard's Church Shoreditch
It is Thursday 26th April, 1770.
It seems Chatterton arrived in time
To visit four magazine editors
He mentions them all
​
Mr Edmunds, Middlesex Journal
Mr Fell, Freeholder's Magazine
Mr Hamilton, Town & Country Magazine
Mr Dodsley, Annual Register
​
Chatterton is on a Mission
It is clear he intends to do all he can
To make a success of this new start.
​
It has been claimed
That Hogarth Sketched Chatterton
(The Distrest Poet)
Impossible,
Hogarth was dead by 1764
​
Nevertheless, the
Hogarth Image is intriguing:
A young man holding a book
Heads for the door of a coffee house
Feels like it could be Chatterton
Also Impossible as it dates to the 1730s.
​
It does give a sense of what
Chatterton had to look forward to
Visiting the coffee shops of London

Shoreditch in 1755


No. 48 Shoreditch
Built on the site of
The House Chatterton Lived in
Chatterton Lodged in Shoreditch
With Mrs Ballance, a Relative
She herself was a Lodger
Of the main tenant, Mr Walmsley
Who lived in the house
With his wife, nephew and niece.
Chatterton Needed Space and Privacy
Instead he Shared the Nephew's Bed.
No Wonder he sat up Writing
Into the early hours
Writing, writing, forever writing.
​
It can't have been much of a surprise
When, 37 Days later and
Desperate for Privacy
He moved to his own,
Private, Attic Room, in Brooke Street
​
The landlord of the Shoreditch house
Was Herbert Croft
Author of Love and Madness
And so, the plot thickens!
​
In a letter Croft wrote to Stevens in 1782
He states he got much of his knowledge
About Chatterton from his Tenants.
He mentions Walmsley specifically.
Croft used the knowledge he gained
Along with Chatterton's Personal letters
To Thicken his Plot of Love and Madness.
The book became Irresistible
To 18th century readers.
Croft was not always a man to be trusted
He convinced Chatterton's sister
To lend him Chatterton's letters & Promised to return them Forthwith
​
Instead, he left town with the letters
And without Permission - the Devil,
He wove them into the plot of his book.
His methods were Devious it's True!
But we know so much more of Chatterton
Thanks to Herbert Croft
Chatterton in Shoreditch
25 April 1770 - 31 May 1770
A Total of Just 37 Days
Around 23 Works to Consider
In this Period.
Authentic Works (17?)
The Candidates
Written 1770. Published 1770
The Exhibition A Personal Satire
Written 1770. Published 1910/1930
A Song Addressed to Miss C----am
Written 1770. Published 1770/1778
Letter to Sarah Chatterton.Cary et al, 6 May 1770
Written 1770. Pub. 1780/1803/1931
To the Society at Spring Garden
Written 1770. Pub. 1770.
Decimus To the Earl of H-----h
Written 1770. Pub.1770.
Decimus To the P----- D----- of W-----
Written 1770. Pub.1770
Letter to Sarah Chatterton 14 May
Written 1770. Pub.1780/1803
Decimus. To the Prime Minister
Written 1770. Pub.1770
Libertas. A Card. To Od Slyboots
Written 1770. Pub.1770.
Decimus. An Exhibition of Sign Paintings
Written 1770. Pub.??????
Decimus. To the Freeholders of the City of Bristol
Written 1770. Pub. ?????
Works of Doubtful Authenticity
Shoreditch
Up For Debate (2)
Lines on Happiness
Gospel Magazine Nov 1770 TP1147
Middlesex Journal 31 May 1770 TP1148
Lost Works (8)
Shoreditch
Works Wrongly Attributed
(none while in Shoreditch)