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394:, he arranged to be accepted as a lawyer in Bengal, a feat which restored his father's goodwill towards him. He departed for Bengal from Portsmouth on 1 May 1777 and called in, en route, at Cape Town. On 12 November 1777 Hickey, aged 28, was "entered on the Roll" as "Solicitor, Attorney, and Proctor of the Supreme Court" in Bengal. He prospered in those roles. In April 1779 he set out to return to England, charged by the English inhabitants of Calcutta to deliver, at their expense, a petition to Parliament in England that they should be entitled to trial by jury.
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indeed, his father would no longer even receive him. Upon his arrival in
Jamaica, Hickey discovered that there were limits imposed on the numbers of attorneys allowed to practice, and he would not be able to make a living as a lawyer there. He returned to England, "with considerable regret", leaving about five months after his arrival, on 17 April 1776, arriving back on 14 June.
403:, Charlotte Barry, who was then aged 18 and with whom he fell in love. He offered to marry her; she refused marriage, but agreed to live with him as his partner. The couple then travelled together to India when Hickey was 32 in 1783. Charlotte did not survive long, dying on Christmas Day 1783, aged 21.
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in late 1808, having left India after becoming ill. He brought with him "a pair of elderly unmarried sisters, his favourite Indian servant Munnoo and a large parti-coloured
English dog." The dullness of what he called a "trifling" place "with a very limited society", encouraged him to occupy his mind
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to return to
England. The ship travelled first to China, of which he gives an account in his memoirs. His father was less than pleased at his return and, after Hickey reverted to his old ways, sent him to Jamaica to work as a lawyer, with a warning that if he failed he could expect no further help —
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Hickey established himself in the legal profession, managing to obtain a series of lucrative posts, including Under-Sheriff and Clerk to the Chief
Justice. Some while after Charlotte's death he took an Indian mistress, Jemdanee, who was locally considered to be his wife. They ha a son in 1796, but
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In
January 1766, he left school and began his legal training at his father's law firm, but he continued to lead an extremely debauched existence, visiting the prostitutes of Covent Garden and drinking heavily. On more than one occasion, he was caught embezzling funds from the firm; finally, his
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The details of his life after 1810 are sketchy, but he seems to have moved to London with his sisters, Sarah and Ann, who died in 1824 and 1826 respectively. He died in 1830.
319:, England, on 30 June 1749, the seventh son of Joseph Hickey, a successful Irish solicitor, and Mary Boulton, from a Yorkshire gentry family. He began his education at
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by writing his memoirs, which eventually extended to over 700 pages of handwritten text taking his life up to 1810, at which point he stopped.
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Tombstone of
Charlotte Barry, here called "Mrs. Hickey", Tombstone 1495, Old English Cemetery, Park Street, Kolkata, India.
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father decided to send his son to India to see if he could make good. Accordingly, Hickey embarked on the ship
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and leading, in his own words, a life of "idleness and dissipation". He was sent to a private school at
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as "One of the most remarkable books of its kind ever published in the
English Language", Hickey's
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The later editions restore some coarser material that was omitted from the first publication.
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Jemdanee died in childbirth. The couple's son died a few months after her.
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Portrait of a
Gentleman, Possibly William Hickey, and an Indian Servant
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give an extraordinarily vivid picture of life in late 18th-century
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Indian
Renaissance: British Romantic Art and the Prospect of India
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which stands comparison with the best of his near-contemporary
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For the gossip column published in the Daily
Express, see
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Upon arriving in India, Hickey was expected to join the
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397:In October he first met and later took up with a
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16:English lawyer and writer of memoirs (1749–1830)
543:(London: Hurst & Blackett) 1913–25, 4 Vols.
423:Hickey retired to the Buckinghamshire town of
524:The Prodigal Rake: Memoirs of William Hickey
390:Through his various connections, including
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299:Learn how and when to remove this message
116:Learn how and when to remove this message
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