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A family history reveals a surprising connection between Charles Dickens’s “Oliver Twist” and a documented account of child labor.
The enduring legacy of Charles Dickens’s “Oliver Twist” continues to captivate, spawning a vast multimedia universe from countless screen adaptations to acclaimed stage musicals and even an Audible dramatization starring Brian Cox and Daniel Kaluuya.Yet, for one family, the story of Oliver Twist is far more personal, tracing back through generations to a foundling named Robert Blincoe.
It was on an Easter Sunday, while watching the musical “Oliver!” on television, that the author’s father made a startling declaration: “Oliver Twist was a Blincoe. He’s my great-great-grandfather.” This revelation ignited a lifelong captivation with the family’s lineage and its unexpected link to Dickens’s iconic work.
A Foundling’s Journey
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The original Robert Blincoe was abandoned in London’s St. Pancras district around 1792. His early life was marked by hardship, entering a workhouse at age four. By seven, he was one of thirty “parish apprentices” bound to labor in a Nottinghamshire cotton mill until the age of 21, a grim reality for thousands of pauper children shipped north by London’s parish councils between the 1790s and 1830s.
Little was known about these children’s lives until Blincoe’s memoir surfaced. His harrowing account of brutality, abuse, and starvation became a national sensation, reaching five editions between 1828 and 1833. Historian John Waller further explored Blincoe’s role in the nascent workers’ rights movement in his biography,”The Real Oliver Twist.”
Did you know? Robert Blincoe’s memoir was published on Fleet Street, near a bookshop Charles Dickens passed daily on his commute.
The author’s father, while studying at Manchester University in the early 1960s, stumbled upon the burgeoning field of social history. Inspired by E.P. Thompson’s assertion that “the working class was present at its own making,” he encountered the research of lecturer Albert Musson. Musson was studying John Doherty, an Irish-born labor organizer described as “the most outstanding Trade Union leader of that period.”
Doherty played a pivotal role in shaping working-class identity, not only through unions and strikes but by publishing their stories. In 1832, Doherty reissued Blincoe’s memoir to support the Ten-hour Movement, advocating for a shorter workday.at university, the author’s father was questioned about a potential relation to the robert Blincoe featured in Doherty’s publications.
This prompted a search in Manchester Central Library, where he discovered letters and testimonials about blincoe, including details about his son, Robert Jr., born in 1826. This Robert Jr. was the author’s great-grandfather, who went on to Queens’ College, cambridge, and was ordained as a priest in Lichfield in 1848, later becoming curate of St. Luke’s Old Street, London, in 1853.
A Circle Back to Old Haunts
A family history reveals a surprising connection between Charles Dickens’s “Oliver Twist” and a documented account of child labor.But the story doesn’t end with lineage. It extends to a reevaluation of Dickens’s work itself. Blincoe wasn’t simply a source for Dickens; he was a made man, but as a testament to “conviviality”-a fellow-feeling blincoe cherished as a political defense against the factory system’s brutality.Blincoe’s collaboration with John Doherty made him an emblem of the working man, even depicted on a banner for the Ten-Hour movement. His memoir itself was a collaborative effort,weaving his experiences with letters from fellow apprentices.
This reevaluation of Blincoe’s memoir as a collective endeavor has reshaped the author’s perspective on Dickens’s work. Dickens built his legend as a singular author, but his enduring power, as seen in the “Oliver twist” multiverse, stems from these later contributions. Dickens’s legacy, the author suggests, lies not
