CHARLES LEVER: HIS LIFE IN HIS LETTERS.
I. EARLY DAYS 1806-1828
With that heroic heedlessness which distinguished him throughout his career, Charles Lever allowed ‘Men of the Time’ to state that he was born in 1809. The late W. J. Fitzpatrick, when he was engaged (thirty years ago) upon his biography of Lever, found it difficult to obtain accurate information concerning the birth-date of the Irish novelist. The records of his parish church—St Thomas’s, Dublin—were searched unavailingly. Finally Dr Fitzpatrick decided to pin his faith to a mortgage-deed (preserved in the Registry Office, Dublin), in which it is set forth that certain “premises”—a dwelling-house, outhouses, yard, and garden—situated at North Strand* are leased of 1802 to James Lever for the term of his life and the lives of his sons, John, aged thirteen years, and Charles James, aged three years.
* Dr Fitzpatrick, in his ‘Life of Lever,’ declares that the
name “North Strand” was changed to “Amiens Street” after the
treaty.
A correspondent points out to me that, according to maps of
Dublin published in 1800, the street was then called Amiens
Street, and that it derived its name from Viscount Amiens,
minor title of the Earl of Aldborough, who built Aldborough
House in the neighbourhood.—E. D.
This is dated 1809. Apart from this deed, however, there are in existence letters written by James Lever which fix the year 1806 as being the birth-date of his younger son. The day and the month are of comparatively little importance, but it is interesting to note that here also is there cloudiness. Dr Fitzpatrick was satisfied that the 31st of August was the day. For this he had the authority of Charles Lever himself: in one of his moments of depression he expressed a wish that August had only thirty days; he would then have been saved from the wear and tear of an anxious life. But James Lever speaks of September as being the month in which his famous son was born; and in 1864 the novelist, writing on the 2nd of September, says that his birthday—presumably the previous day—“passed over without any fresh disaster.” Possibly there may have been a dispute in the family circle as to the exact hour,—the birth may have occurred “upon the midnight.”
The year of Charles Lever’s birth is unquestionably 1806; the place, No. 35 Amiens Street (formerly North Strand), Dublin.* The house in which he was born was subsequently converted into a shop. At the suggestion of Dr Fitzpatrick, a tablet was inserted in the front wall of this building, bearing the name and the dates of the birth and death of Charles James Lever.* Recently, in making railway extensions in the neighbourhood, the house was demolished. A railway bridge spans Amiens Street at the place where No. 35 was situated.