Court reporter

In the first phase of law reporting, Dickens worked on commission and mostly at the London ecclesiastical courts known as ‘Doctors’ Commons’, an eccentric establishment which Dickens would later memorably describe in David Copperfield as a ‘cosey, dosey, old-fashioned, time-forgotten, sleepy-headed little family-party’ which had ‘an ancient monopoly in suits about people’s wills and people’s marriages, and disputes among ships and boats’.[1]

In the 1831 Law List, Dickens is listed as a ‘Short-hand Writer’ working from ‘5 Bell Yard’, whose main tenant was the proctor Charles Fenton. In 1830, Fenton commissioned Dickens to report a case of ‘brawling in church’ (Jarman v. Bagster), which Dickens would famously satirise in his sketch ‘Doctors’ Commons’ from Sketches by Boz (1833-36). Dickens was also seen reporting at the Lord Chancellor’s Court (Chancery) and the Old Bailey Criminal Court, both of which would feature prominently in his novels.

  • A colour illustration of a large hall with flagstone floor. Three groups of men and ladies stand or sit around the edges of the room. They face a set of three archways beyond which is an ante-chamber flooded with light from large windows behind. Through the central archway is a horseshoe shaped bench. Stairs leading to the bench are set within the smaller archways to either side. A judge sits at the head of the bench beneath the Royal coat of arms with six men dressed in red and wearing wigs to either side. There is a large desk set within the bench, around which ten men in black robes and white stoles are sat. A man in plain clothes leans against the desk. The room is decorated with insignia and wooden panelling.

    An illustration of a business day at Doctors' Commons as Dickens may have seen it during his shorthand career.

  • A page from a book. A box containing a black and white illustration takes up half of the page. Two short columns of printed text appear above and below the illustration. At the top of the page the heading reads 'MR. BOLTER AND FRIEND' and indicates the page number, 151. In the illustration a young man stands on a platform in the centre, hands on hips, knee slightly raised. A policeman stands on the floor to his right; he gestures with a right fist thumb out and holds his hat under his other arm. To the right, six ladies and gentlemen, with the implication of more behind them, lean over a wooden panelled seating area. To the left, an older man sits on a carved high back chair at a high bench. Four men work at desks below. One man is writing, one is hunched over the desk and two stand behind a slanted desk covered in papers.

    An illustration of the Artful Dodger on trial from the Household Edition of Oliver Twist. Dickens's early reporting experiences provided inspiration for his novels.

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Dickens's sensitivity to the key role of the shorthand writer in the reporting of legal cases is also shown in the Tavistock letter, which was transcribed from Dickens's shorthand by the Dickens Decoders. While praising a High Court decision in his favour, Dickens writes 'As to its fairness, it is signed by Romilly in open court and is taken from the short hand writer's notes of a judgement of his.' It was a wonderful surprise for the decoders to find the word 'shorthand' written in shorthand!

Dickens's Gurney symbols for the word 'shorthand', from Dickens's Tavistock letter. © The Morgan Library & Museum, MA 107.43. Hover over the image to see what each shape stands for.

References

[1] Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, edited by Jeremy Tambling (London: Penguin, 2004), 361, 352.