Thomas Chatterton Manuscript Project
Timeline
25 April - 31 May 1770 - A total of 37 Days
Age 17, Lodging with Mrs Ballance
Shoreditch in 1755
St Leonard's Church Shoreditch
It is Thursday 26th April, 1770 and Chatterton is now in Shoreditch and on a mission. It is clear that he intends to do all he can to make a success of his new start. It seems he arrived in time to visit four magazine editors and he mentions them all in a letter to his Mother : Mr Edmunds of the Middlesex Journal; Mr Fell of the Freeholder's Magazine; Mr Hamilton of the Town & Country Magazine; and Mr Dodsley of the Annual Register.
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Is it likely that Chatterton would make his visits to these illustrious editors without first writing to them? I think not. We do have the two extant letters that Chatterton wrote to Dodsley, but that was back in December 1768, and February 1769. It makes complete sense to write to the editors pre-empting his visit to London on the 26th April 1770.
Hogarth - Tom King's Coffee House
Tom King's Coffee House. Hogarth 1730s.
Tom King's Coffee House, interior, Hogarth
The Hogarth engravings give a taste of what Chatterton had to look forward to when he started visiting the coffee shops of London.
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In the small engraving, a young man holding a book heads for the door of a coffee house, it certainly resembles a stocky Chatterton (as described by his sister), but it can't be Chatterton as the image dates to before Chatterton's birth.
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It has been said that Hogarth sketched Chatterton, which is also impossible as Hogarth was dead by 1764. Perhaps this claim refers to Hogarth's generic picture of 'The Distrest Poet.'
Chatterton's Lodgings in Shoreditch
No. 48 Shoreditch built on the site of the house Chatterton lived in.
Chatterton lodged in Shoreditch with Mrs Ballance, a relative, who was herself a lodger of the main tenant, Mr Walmsley, who lived in the house with his wife and a nephew and niece.
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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.
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It can't have been much of a surprise when, 37 days later and desperate for privacy, he moved to a private attic room, in Brooke Street.
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Coincidentally, the landlord of the Shoreditch house was Herbert Croft, author of Love and Madness; and so, the plot thickens!
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In a letter that Croft wrote to Stevens in 1782, he states he got much of his knowledge about Chatterton from his tenants. He mentions Walmsley specifically.
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Croft used the knowledge he gained, along with Chatterton's personal letters to enhance the plot of Love and Madness. The book became irresistible to 18th century readers, going through five or more editions in the 1780s alone.
It is obvious that 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, the devious devil left town with the letters. Yes his methods were devious and underhand, it's true, but so much of what we know of Chatterton is thanks to Herbert Croft.
Chatterton Meets William Beckford
Lord Mayor of London
Dix's Image of Chatterton
Part of Chatterton's letter to the Lord Mayor, signed as 'Probus' one of Chatterton's pen-names.
Click the letter to read it in full.
The Political Register 1770 pp 328-331
Chatterton shows he had confidence enough and ideas big enough, at the age of 17, to manipulate a meeting with the Lord Mayor of London.
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His manipulation started with an article in the Middlesex Journal, written on the 18 May but not published until the 25th, the day after Beckford had the nerve to 'instruct' the King to dissolve parliament. The timing was perfect; now when Chatterton asked to meet with the Lord Mayor he was welcomed as a political ally; little did they know that Chatterton was happy to write on 'both sides of the question,' he was a living version of Apostate Will.
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Here is a boy who has a plan, he has gone from the disappointment of rejection by Walpole, to seeking the support of William Beckford, Lord Mayor of London, and the talk of the whole of England.
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Chatterton must have been delighted with how things had gone; as can be seen by his letter home to Mary on the 30th May 1770, but he was to be thrown into fits of despair on the 21st June, when, out of the blue, Beckford up and died!
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The only known remnant of the letter (see below), is a single piece from the corner of the letter with writing on both sides of it. It is described by Tom Routledge in a presentation he made to the Chatterton Society in 2003 : View
Chatterton's Works in Shoreditch
Letter to Sarah Chatterton 26th April 1770 : View
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The Candidates
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​*Narva and Mored An African Eclogue 2 May 1770 : View
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The Exhibition A Personal Satire : View
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A Song Addressed to Miss C----am
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Letter to Sarah Chatterton, & others, 6 May 1770 : View
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Thomas Cary; Henry Kator;
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William Smith; Mrs Baker
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Matt Mease; Mr Thaire; Mr Rudhall; Mr Ward; Mr Gaster
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Mr Thomas; Mr Kator; Mr A. Broughton; Mr Carty
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Mr Smith, &c. &c. &c. Mr J. Broughton; Mr Hanmer;
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Mr Williams; Mr Vaughan
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​To the Society at Spring Garden
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Decimus To the Earl of H-----h (Hillsborough)
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Decimus To the P----- D----- of W----- (Princess Dowager)
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Sarah Chatterton Correspondence : View
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To Sarah Chatterton 14 May
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Decimus. To the Prime Minister
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​Libertas. A Card. To Od Slyboots
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Decimus. An Exhibition of Sign Paintings
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​*Probus to the Lord Mayor : View
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*O! Quickly may the Friendly Ruin Fall : View
(Elegy 3, to Maria)
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Decimus. To the Freeholders of the City of Bristol
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Letter to Mary Chatterton, 30 May 1770 : View
Narva and Mored
An African Eclogue
Written & Published May 1770
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Narva and Mored was first published in The London Magazine in May 1770, with the signature 'C,' Brooke Street, June 12. The 2nd printing from the 1778 edition of Chatterton's Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, derives its text from The London Magazine. The two editions differ only in some additional punctuation in the 1778.
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O! Quickly may the Friendly Ruin Fall
(Elegy 3 - To Maria)
Written & Published May 1770
Elegy 3, To Maria, O! Quickly may the Friendly Ruin Fall. It seems that the version in this magazine differs from the handwritten transcript in Bristol Reference Library, which is the only copy in manuscript form.
This is one of my favourite poems, which probably means I am a pleb - I knows what I likes and I likes what I knows!
Click the magazine to read the first printing in the Town and Country Magazine.
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The transcript 'original' will appear here when Bristol Reference Library reopens after the pandemic eases, sometime during 2021.
Links to Chatterton's Works & Correspondence
Call it what you will, authentic, doubtful, lost, or plainly wrong - if it was linked with Chatterton it will be included in Chatterton's Works & Correspondence. This will be the base point from which we can examine every piece of work, and add notes and links accordingly.