Item 9 - Letter from Charles Hopkin Mackay to George Monckton-Arundell, 6th Viscount Galway

2 ff.

Bowes, near Greta Bridge. - Lord Galway's previous charity; is nephew of the late Colonel [George Caesar?] Hopkinson; was educated for a profession and fell from favour with his uncle; has been teaching since the age of seventeen; has fourteen children and a rheumatic wife; death of his cousin Charles [Barrow?] Hopkinson ten years ago deprived him of a small allowance; now has debts of £30. Has left recent employment where his salary was £40 p.a. without board: 'My determination this way was greatly accelerated by the instability and brutal tyranny of my late employer [William Shaw, on whom Dickens modelled Wackford Squeers], who since the publication of Nicholas Nickleby, and the consequent decline of his school, has become so outrageously overbearing in his manners, as to render it almost impossible for any assistant, who has not the soul of a slave, to reside long with him. Mr Dickens has depicted him most accurately'. Has been promised a clerkship but until it becomes vacant he requires funds to open a small school of his own. Postscript: Rev. Lambert or William Atkinson will vouch for him.