Henry Mayhew and the Mayhew Brothers

Abstract

Henry Mayhew and his brothers were writers in the early and mid-Victorian periods. The most famous of the siblings was Henry Mayhew. Henry and his brothers were born in an upper-middle class family of seventeen children. Their father, Joshua Dorset Joseph Mayhew, who left £50,000 in his will, attempted in vain to discipline his boys. Several his children began public careers as writers and artists: Thomas (b. 1810–d. 1834) a journalist; Henry (b. 1812–d. 1887) author and journalist; Edward (b. 1813–d. 1868) dramatist, journalist, and veterinarian; Horace (b. 1816–d. 1872) author and journalist; Julius (b. 1820–d. 1908) photographer and architect; Augustus (b. 1826–d. 1875) author and journalist. Three siblings became known as the “Brothers Mayhew”: Henry and Augustus, who regularly published together, with occasional contributions by Horace. Henry has been the object of most of the scholarly attention, albeit for a limited portion of his work, yet a more holistic perspective would consider his work more widely and that of his brothers and collaborators. The eldest, Thomas Mayhew, editor of Henry Hetherington’s Poor Man’s Guardian (1831–1832), succeeded by the Chartist James Brontere o’Brien (b. 1805–d. 1864), deserves particular attention. The Mayhews belonged to a generation of highly enterprising and financially insecure men of letters (Thomas and Henry faced bankruptcy) associating with more successful authors such as Charles Dickens (b. 1812–d. 1870), Douglas Jerrold (b. 1803–d. 1857), William Makepeace Thackeray (b. 1811–d. 1863), Gilbert Abott à’Beckett (b. 1811–d. 1856), George Augustus Sala (b. 1828–d. 1895), Edmund Yates (b. 1831–d. 1894), Henry Vizetelly (b. 1820–d. 1894), William Tinsley (b. 1831–d. 1902). The Mayhews embraced the democratization of print culture and produced cheap and popular novels, humorous texts, and newspapers. They were associated with dissident and radical publications: Henry Mayhew was a founder of The Thief, Figaro in London, and most importantly Punch in 1841. The Mayhew brothers worked with caricaturist and illustrator George Cruikshank (b. 1792–d. 1878). As a journalist Henry Mayhew also wrote for the Illustrated London News. He was employed by the Morning Chronicle in 1849 when he launched into his social journalism, defying any straightforward classification, as it combined interviews and economic and cultural reporting on the poor as well as “urban exploratory” work. His initial journalism was continued independently as London Labour and the London Poor and its sequel, in 1856, The Criminal Prisons of London and Scenes of Prison Life. The significance of London Labour and the London Poor (including the articles in the Morning Chronicle leading to it and the Criminal World of London which followed) dominates any reference to other writings by Henry or his brothers. The second and greater part of this entry will be devoted to Henry Mayhew and the London Labour and the London Poor while it will seek to highlight new or less explored themes in the writings of Henry Mayhew and his brothers and invite further research across their work.