Ring 'could prove Dickens had secret love child'

A diamond ring could prove Charles Dickens had a secret love child with his sister-in-law, an auctioneer claimed today.

The owners of the ring, who wish to remain anonymous, claim it was passed down to them from an illegitimate son born to Dickens and Georgina Hogarth, the sister of his wife Catherine.

The author, who died in 1870, was dogged by rumours he had a long-standing relationship with Miss Hogarth, who was also the family housekeeper.

The heirloom, a gift to Dickens from the poet Alfred Tennyson, is said to have passed to one of the novelist’s sons, Alfred Dickens, who lived in Australia for a while.

He is said to have fallen on hard times, leading him to sell the ring to a man called Hector Dickens – who, the owners believe, was his half-brother.

The ring is being sold by Hector’s descendants with letters, two wills and newspaper cuttings that they say help to prove his claim.

Auctioneer Nigel Ward, who is selling the ring next month in Pontrilas, Herefordshire, said: “Analysis of the documentation leads one to believe that Hector Charles Bulwer Lytton Dickens, apparently frequently known as Charles Dickens the Younger, was the son of the renowned Charles Dickens of literary fame and Georgina Hogarth, who was his sister-in-law and was employed as their housekeeper.

“This has also long been the understanding of the ring’s custodians.”

The ring is being sold with a guide price of £25,000-£35,000 (€28,109-€39,352) on February 21.

Dickens, who died aged 58, was given it while married to Catherine, with whom he had 10 children.

Miss Hogarth also moved into the Dickens’ household after the marriage and stayed there after her older sister left.

To counter one claim that Georgina had borne him three illegitimate children, Dickens insisted on having a doctor examine her to provide documentary proof of her virginity.

A relationship with a sister-in-law was treated as incest under Victorian law.

According to an inscription, the gold ring set with a single 0.9-carat diamond was presented to Dickens by Tennyson, the Poet Laureate and one of his closest friends, in 1854.

Despite his claims to be a respectable family man, Dickens had a long-standing affair with the actress Ellen Ternan, who was 18 when they met in 1858.

But it was rumours about Georgina that really angered the author of 'David Copperfield' and 'Great Expectations'. He described them as “monstrous misrepresentations” in his journal 'Household Words'.

When he died he left her £8,000 in cash, a vast sum of money in those days, and a collection of jewellery, far more than he bequeathed to either his estranged wife or his mistress.

Florian Schweizer, curator of the Dickens Museum in Doughty Street, central London, said that the ring could turn Dickens’ history “on its head”.

He told the Times: “There have been rumours of them having an affair but it has never been substantiated because there has never been any reliable evidence emerge.

“They lived together for the last 13 years with Georgina as a friend and companion, but Dickens also had a mistress at the same time.”