Laurence Ince

Charles Dickens and the Great Jennens Case Laurence Ince

Stranger than fiction and more sensational than a Wilkie Collins novel - this is an unbelievable account revolving around the life of William Jennens, justly described as the richest commoner in England. When William Jennens died in 1798 his estate was valued at well over £1,000,000. Three aristocratic families had the most valid claims on the Jennens estate but that did not stop hundreds of fortune hunters coming forward to voice their claims. For over a hundred years these Jennens claimants battled with the inheriting families to claim the fortune left by William the Miser. Lunacy, destitution and bankruptcy were the rewards for many of the people who believed themselves to be a Jennens relative with a claim to the fortune. It was thought that Charles Dickens used the Great Jennens Case as one of the ideas behind Jarndyce v Jarndyce in his novel Bleak House. But where did Dickens get his information from and who was the real William Jennens?