Author: Hodges, Charles
Biography:
HODGES, Charles (1802-48: ancestry.com)
He was born on 11 Nov. 1802 and baptised Charles Alexander Crickitt Hodges on 26 Apr. 1803 at Embleton, Northamptonshire, where his father Henry Hodges (1757-1811) was Rector. Henry Hodges had married Sophia Alexander Crickett (1779-1867) on 12 Nov. 1798 at Blackmore, Essex. Charles was the second son, following James (b 1801). The family may already have been living in London when the boys’ father died there in 1811. After his death their mother married again, by licence, at St. James, Piccadilly, on 21 Nov. 1812. Their stepfather was John Hodgson, Esq., resident at the time at Charles St., St. James’s Square; he was a property-owner and businessman. Charles did not attend university but had a good literary education, as is attested by his epigraphs from Ossian, Byron, and Moore; his translations from German; and his extended European visits. At some point he married: his wife Eliza Grace is mentioned in his will of 1844, as are his brother James and his mother Mrs. Hodgson. The couple had one son, Charles William, baptised at St. Mark, Kennington, Lambeth, on 17 May 1826 and buried at the same church less than a year later. In 1830, as a bookseller (and well-known collector of literary mss) with a business on Portman St., Portman Square, he was robbed by a woman named Eliza Stally, a prostitute he had frequented and then made the mistake of trusting as a servant in the household. She was charged, tried, and transported. In the 1830s he was in Germany, where Translated and Original Poems, dedicated to Schlegel, was published (Koblenz), followed in 1836 by another collection of translations (Munich) that he dedicated to his stepfather, and in 1840 by a historical tragedy, Inez de Castro (Hamburg). Death notices later referred to him further as having been formerly resident in Frankfurt. He died in France at Amiens on 17 Mar. 1848. His collection of holograph letters by famous persons including European royalty and Byron caused a stir when it was auctioned in London later that year. His mother lived on until 1867 and left effects valued at under £5000 to her grandson and sole executor, Rev. James Hodges of Iffley, Oxford. (ancestry.com 18 Sept. 2022; findmypast.com 18 Sept. 2022; oldbaileyonline; London Chronicle 11 Jan. 1811; London Courier 24 Nov. 1812; The Scotsman 30 Dec. 1848) HJ