The Charles Dickens Letters Project
Period:
1841-1850
Theme(s):
friends
To THOMAS MITTON,1 [1841-2]
Envelope only.
Text from facsimile in University Archives online catalogue, May 2022.
Address: Thomas Mitton Esquire | 23 Southampton Buildings | Chancery Lane
Date: Handwriting confirms 1841-2. Imperforate penny red stamp introduced Feb 1841. Maltese Cross cancellation introduced in 1840 and replaced by numbered cancellations in May 1844.
- 1. Thomas Mitton (1812-78), solicitor, one of CD’s closest friends. Son of Thomas Mitton, publican, of Battle Bridge (the district now known as King's Cross), where the Mitton and Dickens families may at some time have been neighbours -- perhaps in The Polygon, where the Dickenses were living 1827-8. In recollections given to the Evening Times when she was 95, Mitton's sister Mary Ann (born 1821) claimed to have known CD well as a small girl. Mitton and CD were clerks together for a short time during 1828-9 in Charles Molloy's office, 8 New Square, Lincoln's Inn, where Mitton served his articles. He qualified in 1833; practised law at 3 New Inn, Strand 1834-7; and early in 1838 joined Smithson & Dunn at 23 Southampton Buildings. He acted as CD’s solicitor for twenty years. See William J. Carlton, “The Strange Story of Thomas Mitton”, Dickensian 56 (1960): 41-52.