Author: Ainsworth, William Harrison
Biography:
AINSWORTH, William Harrison (1805-82: ODNB)
He was the eldest son of Thomas Ainsworth, a solicitor, and his wife Ann Harrison, daughter of a non-conformist minister. Both of his parents came from prosperous and well-educated families. Ainsworth was born on 14 Feb. 1805 in Manchester and baptised by his maternal grandfather on 28 Feb. He was tutored at home until he was twelve when he entered Manchester Grammar School (1817-22). He began writing while at school and his The Rivals: A Serio-Comic Tragedy was printed as by “T. Hall” in Arliss’s Pocket Magazine in 1822. John Arliss also printed his first book of verse; the database includes a record for the 1823 edition and there may have been an earlier one in 1822. Ainsworth articled as a clerk with Alexander Kay, a solicitor, but on his father’s death in 1824 he inherited his law practice and moved to London for further legal training in the Inner Temple. He became a King’s Bench solicitor in 1826, the same year that he married Anne Frances Ebers (d 1838) on 11 Oct. in St. Marylebone. She was the daughter of John Ebers, a publisher with whom Ainsworth entered into partnership. In 1829 the partnership was dissolved and Ainsworth travelled to Europe before briefly working as a solicitor in London. His real interests lay in literature not law; he was associated with Fraser’s Magazine and began writing the “Newgate novels”—including Rookwood (1831) and Jack Sheppard (1839)—that made his name. He and Anne (known as Fanny) had three daughters but the marriage ended in separation in 1835. In the 1840s he began writing historical fiction and developed a wide circle of literary friends including Charles Dickens. However lasting success eluded him and over time he earned less for his novels while he faded from view as a public figure. In 1856 he was awarded a civil list pension of £100. In 1866 he married Sarah Wells with whom he had a daughter, Clara Rose Ainsworth, who was probably born in 1865. The 1881 Census shows the family living in Brighton but Ainsworth died in Reigate on 3 Jan. 1882. He was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. (ODNB 16 Sept. 2022; ancestry.co.uk 18 Sept. 2022) SR
Other Names:
- W. H. Ainsworth