February 15, 2019 | Leave a comment If you ask someone to come up with a character from a Charles Dickens novel, the chances are the name they will choose will be Ebenezer Scrooge, the wealthy but miserly protagonist from Dickens’ classic tale A Christmas Carol, published in 1843. Indeed, such is the fame of the fictitious cheapskate, that the very name Scrooge has been subsumed into the English language to define someone mean and miserable by nature. His catchphrase, “Bah! Humbug!” is also frequently used today as an expression of displeasure at traditional Christmas festivities. But, from where did Dickens draw his inspiration for such a colossal tightwad? It seems there are a couple of likely candidates for the accolade of the ‘real Ebenezer Scrooge‘. May I introduce two of the England’s greatest skinflints: John Elwes and Jemmy Wood. John Elwes was born in 1714 and inherited two fortunes of £100,000 and £250,000, on the respective deaths of his father and uncle – a combined value of approximately twenty six million pounds in today’s terms. A significant amount of money with which to be able to enjoy life to the full, you might be thinking, and of course, you’d be right. Elwes however, was not about to let his new found prosperity go to his head. Quite the reverse, in fact. 1. John Elwes (1714-1789) So tightfisted was the wealthy Elwes, that he gained a degree of notoriety simply due to his miserliness. He would go to bed as darkness fell so as to avoid spending money unnecessarily on candles. He refused to buy new clothes, preferring instead to wear such old and ragged outfits that many who saw him mistook him for a beggar and actually gave him money! Whilst easily able to afford to buy his own coach and horses, Elwes even avoided using public transport and would walk, often in the rain, in order to save on fares. His culinary habits were also the stuff of legend. His food was often mouldy and he thought nothing of eating putrefied meat. It was even claimed that, on one occasion, he ate a moorhen that he acquired from a rat that had just pulled it from a river! As you might imagine, Elwes viewed property maintenance as an unnecessary frivolity and consequently his large country house gradually deteriorated, until it became virtually uninhabitable. A visiting relative found it necessary to move his bed in the night, in order to avoid rainwater pouring on him through holes in the roof. In 1772 John Elwes stood for election as a Member of Parliament for Berkshire. Surprisingly he won, despite having forked out just eighteen pence on election expenses! He retained his seat for twelve years, eventually standing down in 1784, when it became apparent that he would need to mount an expensive re-election campaign. On one famous occasion he even trumped the great Ebenezer himself, by complaining bitterly about birds stealing his hay for nest building purposes! Unlike Scrooge however, his frugality seems to have been restricted to his own circumstance. Following his death in 1789, a contemporary wrote: “To others, he lent much; to himself, he denied everything. … I have it not in my remembrance one unkind thing that ever was done by him.” Despite having died some twenty three years before Dickens’ birth, such was his notoriety that his reputation for stinginess outlived him by decades. Indeed, there is no doubt that Charles Dickens was well aware of the thrifty Elwes, as he even made reference to him in his last novel Our Mutual Friend. Jemmy Wood, who was born in 1756, shared many traits with his miserly predecessor, wearing the same ragged clothing for years on end and walking to appointments rather than paying for a carriage, despite being the owner of the Gloucester Old Bank and having a net worth of around £900,000 – or about seventy two million pounds in current terms. He was even reported to regularly visit Gloucester Docks in order to fill his pockets with small pieces of coal that fell from the boats as they were being unloaded! 2. Jemmy Wood (1756-1836) Most famously, he once hitched a ride back to Gloucester from Tewkesbury in the back of a hearse, by occupying the space normally reserved for passengers of a more deceased nature. Unlike Elwes however, Wood’s tightfistedness extended into his business affairs and as a consequence, he was much disliked in the community. When he eventually needed the services of an undertaker for real in 1836, it was reported that his coffin was stoned. Tales of the Gloucester Miser, as Wood was known, were familiar to Dickens, who also mentions him in Our Mutual Friend. In addition, a character by the name of Dismal Jemmy appears in another of Dickens’ novels, The Pickwick Papers. Even after his death, Jemmy Wood’s fiscal fastidiousness persisted. So hotly contested was his will, that a protracted court case ensued, resulting in much of his estate being swallowed up in legal fees. It has been suggested that the court case of Jarndyce v Jarndyce in another of Dickens’ novels, Bleak House, may have been based on the real life wranglings of Wood’s disputed will. It is tempting to think that Charles Dickens fictional character Ebenezer Scrooge was something of an exaggerated version of the individuals from whom he drew his inspiration. However, given that it is likely that both Elwes and Wood served as the basis for the miserly Scrooge, when one takes into account the incredible tightfistidness of both men, he probably had to tone it down a bit! Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebenezer_Scrooge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Elwes_(politician) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jemmy_Wood Images: 1. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or less. 2. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 70 years or less.