Georgina Hogarth

Georgina Hogarth (22 January 1827 – 19 April 1917) was the sister-in-law, housekeeper, and adviser of English novelist Charles Dickens and the editor of two volumes of his collected letters after his death.

'Georgy' Hogarth was one of 10 children born in Scotland to music critic George Hogarth and his wife Georgina. In 1834, Georgy and her family moved to England where her father had taken a job as a music critic for the Morning Chronicle.

In 1842, aged 15, Georgy Hogarth joined the Dickens family household when Dickens and his wife Catherine (née Hogarth), sailed to America Georgy cared for the young family they had left behind. She remained with them as housekeeper, organiser, adviser, and friend until her brother-in-law's death in 1870, after which she stayed in regular contact with the surviving members of the Dickens family.

In 1858, Georgina Hogarth sided with Dickens in his quarrel with her sister, Catherine, Dickens's wife. This caused the family to break apart. Georgina, Dickens, and all of the children except Charles Dickens, Jr. remained in their home at , while Catherine and Charles Jr. moved out. Georgina ran Dickens' household. On 12 June 1858, Dickens published an article in his journal, Household Words, denying rumours in circulation about his separation without clarifying what they were or indeed the reasons behind the separation.

"Some domestic trouble of mine, of long-standing, on which I will make no further remark than that it claims to be respected, as being of a sacredly private nature, has lately been brought to an arrangement, which involves no anger or ill-will of any kind, and the whole origin, progress, and surrounding circumstances of which have been, throughout, within the knowledge of my children. It is amicably composed, and its details have now but to be forgotten by those concerned in it....By some means, arising out of wickedness, or out of folly, or out of inconceivable wild chance, or out of all three, this trouble has been made the occasion of misrepresentations, most grossly false, most monstrous, and most cruel – involving, not only me, but innocent persons dear to my heart.... I most solemnly declare, then – and this I do both in my own name and in my wife's name – that all the lately whispered rumours touching the trouble, at which I have glanced, are abominably false. And whosoever repeats one of them after this denial, will lie as wilfully and as foully as it is possible for any false witness to lie, before heaven and earth".

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