“Never let the facts stand in the way of a good story”, so the old saying goes. And that is exactly the approach taken by Claire Tomalin who wrote the book, and by Ralph Fiennes who made and acted in the film The Invisible Woman. This purports to tell the story of the relationship between Charles Dickens and the actress Ellen Ternan. And the fact that they chose to ignore is simply that there is not a shred of credible evidence so support the case that Ellen was Dickens’s mistress, and that she bore him a child. Sure, there is evidence to show that there was a significant relationship that lasted from the time they met during performances of The Frozen Deep in Manchester in 1857, until Dickens’s death in 1870. There is evidence that Dickens kept Ellen pretty much hidden away for most of this time, providing accommodation for her, her mother, and to a lesser extent her sisters, in a variety of places including in and around London and in France. But this is only circumstantial as far as a sexual relationship is concerned. The prejudiced argument is, of course, that no man would do that unless he was getting his share of sexual favours. But as far as actual evidence goes, there is none. On the contrary, according to J.T.W. Ley, Ellen’s maid of many years has said “Tell Ellen’s daughter, if she ever asks, that I never mentioned the matter to her because it could only cause her pain, but that if she had ever asked me, I should have been able to say solemnly that her dear mother never was the mistress of Charles Dickens”. Now, I agree that this is merely hearsay, and therefore does not constitute ‘evidence’; but then those who do believe the story are also relying totally on hearsay!
The first ‘revelation’ was made by Thomas Wright of Olney, in his Life of Dickens, published in 1935. In that book, Wright claimed that he had been told by Canon William Benham in about 1900, that in about 1897, Ellen had ‘disburdened her soul’, ‘told the whole story’, and had told Benham that she had been Dickens’s mistress. Wright had already made the statement that he had ‘long been aware that Ellen had been Dickens’s mistress, but that until Canon Benham told him, he had no evidence to prove it’. Quite what Wright had based his ‘long awareness’ on, he did not say. But it does indicate a predisposition to interpret anything that Benham might have told him, in a sexual way. We cannot be at all sure, that what Wright eventually published, was anything like what Ellen might have said to Canon Benham some 40 years earlier. By the time Wright published his book, everyone, including Canon Benham, who could have confirmed or refuted the allegations, was long dead. So what we have here is totally unsubstantiated hearsay!
I do not need to repeat here the actual statements made by Wright, as you can get a copy of his Life of Dicknes and of his autobiography, and read them for yourself, but the ‘whole story’ contained not a single mention of pregnancy, child birth or death.
The next ‘revelation’ was made by Gladys Storey in her book Dickens and Daughter published in 1939. In this book, Storey claims that in 1927 she was told by Dickens’s daughter Kate, that from the relationship between Ellen and Dickens, there was ‘a resultant son, (who died in infancy)’. There was no indication as to when or where the baby was born, or when, where or how it died. There is just that one simple statement, and no corroborating evidence.
Of course, like the claims made in Wright’s book, there was no-one left alive to confirm or refute Storey’s statement. But ever since that time, people have been searching for the missing baby, and to date, not a shred, not a whisker, of evidence has been found. But many people have, like Tomalin, accepted this hearsay as truth. And it keeps being repeated, but the doubts which such a serious lack of evidence should give rise to, are no longer mentioned. All I can say is, that as Tomalin and Fiennes and all the others are so very willing to convict on such nebulous and fragile evidence, I hope they are never called upon for jury duty!
Slingsby's Miscellany 