Jessel, Sir Charles

Deputy Manager of the British North Borneo Company. FH famously reported that Carlyle had told him about his impotence and failure to consummate his marriage. This claim was disputed by Carlyle's nephew Alexander Carlyle, who said FH had got his information from Froude's book published in 1904.

According to FH, Jessel was able to confirm FH's story, as FH had also related it at a dinner held by Jessel at the Garrick Club in either 1886 or 1887. Jessel would have been only 26 or so at this time, so one must wonder whether FH's recollection as to date and occasion can have been correct.

[My thanks are due to Sir Charles Jessel's great grandson Richard Jessel for his help in correcting this entry, which previously repeated an error made by John F Gallagher, editor of the Grove Press edition of My Life and Loves. The dates and profession for Jessel provided by Gallagher are actually those of his father, Sir George Jessel (1824-1883).]