When did Charles Dickens' father go to prison?

Answer 1

Answer: John Dickens was briefly imprisoned at Marshalsea Debtors Prison, having spent beyond his means on lavish entertainment. He and his wife were both chronically improvident and all their life together was spent either squandering or scraping for money.

Answer 2

Charles Dickens' father, John Dickens, went to debtors' prison in 1824 when Charles was just 12 years old. John's financial troubles and subsequent imprisonment had a significant impact on Charles' life and influenced his novels and writings.

Answer 3

When you couldn't pay your creditors in Victorian times, you were apprehended by private 'officials' who had the power to detain you until someone paid your bond. This official would take you, often, to his own home, where various rooms were set aside for the housing of such prisoners. These were called 'sponging houses.' When it was determined that you could pay neither your bond nor your creditors, you were sent to a hearing then to a debtors prison. While not palatial, most could be made relatively pleasant, especially if you had family members to bring you little comforts: better foods, better bedding, even pieces of furniture. Often, for a fee to the warder, even your family was allowed to come live with you in prison (which all of Dickens's family did, with the exception of Charles himself). In many cases, the convicted declined this opportunity. Charles, as the eldest, was compelled to leave school at about 12 and go to work at a blacking factory. He remained there until his father was released (on the strength of his mother having coming in to an inheritence). His mother tried to convince his father that Charles should stay in his job at the factory even after the rest of the family left prison; this poisoned his attitude toward his mother for the rest of his life.

Answer 4

for one thing everyone would be affected if there dad went to jail but the main thing Charles went to visit him every day....i think but his dad was put in the slammmer because his family was poor so Charles had to help make the money for the family

Answer 5

Debts; in those days they either went to the house of a special bailiff, if they had a little money left to pay for the extras, or they went to the squalid debtors' prison, where many destitute people died years later, as they could no longer pay off their debts.

Answer 6

Charles Dickens was twelve at the time of his father's imprisonment for debt in 1824.

Answer 7

all the family except Charles and his sister Fanny were housed with John Dickens at the prison

Answer 8

he was 12 years old