The Profligate Son: Or, A True Story of Family Conflict, Fashionable Vice, and Financial Ruin in Regency Britain

by Nicola Phillips

A profligate son was every Georgian parent's worst nightmare. To his father, William Jackson's imprudent spending, incessant partying, and sexual adventures were a sure sign he was on the slippery slope to ruin. But to his friends, William was a “damned good fellow,” a charming, impeccably dressed young gentleman with enviable seductive skills who was willing to defend his honor in duels. Mr. Jackson and his son viewed each other across a generational gap that neither could bridge, and their flawed relationship had catastrophic consequences for their family.

In The Profligate Son , historian Nicola Phillips hauntingly reconstructs this family tragedy from a recently discovered trove of letters and court documents. After Mr. Jackson's acquisition of a fortune during his service for the East India Company in Madras was undermined by false accusations that ruined his career, he invested all his future ambitions in his only son. William grew up in great comfort and was sent to the best schools in the country. But when the family moved to London, the teenager rebelled against the loneliness and often brutal regimes of public schooling and escaped to explore the pleasures of the town with his wealthy friends. His attempts to impress his peers led him into disastrous levels of debt that resulted in his imprisonment and ever more illegal efforts to satisfy his creditors, which appalled his prudent, sternly moralistic father. Mr. Jackson decided that the only way to combat his son's wayward behavior was to completely cut him off. In doing so, he condemned William to repeated imprisonment and a perilous voyage to an Australian penal colony. In Sydney William sought to rebuild his life with a family of his own, but even there his father's legacy brought further tragedy.

A masterpiece of literary nonfiction as dramatic as any Dickens novel, The Profligate Son transports readers from the steamy streets of India and the elegant squares and seedy brothels of London to the sunbaked shores of Australia, tracing the arc of a life long buried in history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Regency, British Literature, Research, Crime

360 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Anne Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

During the late eighteenth- early nineteenth century English society began to change from what we today call Georgian society to Regency society. It was a time of change in many ways: economic, social, sexual, and cultural- and this change often came in the form of a cultural gap between parents and children. Fortunately, many people kept excellent diaries, journals, as well as all their letters, allowing us today to dig into the emotional turmoil these changing times could produce. The Profligate Son is a perfect example, allowing readers to follow one father and son during this fascinating time period.

William Jackson came of age in the early 1800s. His father was an East India Company man who returned to England wealthy and determined to start a respectable and respected family and raise his son a 'gentleman'. However, Mr Jackson's idea of a 'gentleman' and William's were quite different- both products of their time. Where Mr. Jackson expected his son to be obedient, quiet, intelligent, and help establish the credit of the family name through prudent financial management, William was determined to be everything a young Regency buck could be. He gambled, drank, visited prostitutes, and bought endless amounts of clothes, horses, and accessories. William's view of a gentleman was very much the entitled view held by the aristocracy he tried to emulate. He never quite seemed to understand the idea of debt- young aristocrats lived on their expectations and he went through life assuming (despite being told otherwise) his father would pay for everything while he was under age, then conveniently die so William could inherit a fortune and pay all his creditors.

William quickly learned to play the system, using his appearance as a gentleman and his father's name to get what he wanted. During what author Phillips calls "the first age of mass consumer credit" society and the legal system were still working out the problem of different ideas towards debt and credit. As tradesmen banged on the door William went from simple debt to forgery in order to try and continue the lifestyle he wanted to maintain. Horrified by William's attitude and lack of care for the family name, Mr. Jackson did all he could to set his son straight. This eventually meant letting William have a taste of debtor's prison and standing trial for forgery.

The Profligate Son is a fascinating book, well researched and well written, using one family's well documented story as a microcosm to explore the nature of social and economic change during the time period. Phillips does an excellent job of explaining to a modern audience the 1800 British justice system and the rather fuzzy and changeable lines between crimes and classes. She immerses the reader into a world of riches and vice, debtors prison and prison ships, as well as the criminal justice systems of England and Australia. While William is a thoroughly unlikeable and unsympathetic young man (even when you don't agree with how Mr. Jackson handles things, you completely sympathize with his problems) I couldn't wait to find out what happened to him next.

Even though I knew going in what the end would be (the dust jacket tells you right from the start William's Australia bound) the book was as full of surprises and drama as if it was fiction instead of well documented fact. An excellent book for those interested in learning more about Regency England.

For my full review, go to:
http://bookwyrmreader.blogspot.com/20...

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredibly well-researched historical account of a young man in Regency England who grew up in privilege but slid into debt, depravity, crime, and eventually the penal colony in Australia. One review I read said the book made the reader want to shake William--and I had to agree. Nowadays, he'd probably be diagnosed with narcissistic or borderline personality disorder. He seemed to have no ability to understand that his actions brought about consequences, with an attitude of "Well, yes, I bought eighteen shirts on my father's credit and then pawned them for ready money so I could get drunk and visit a prostitute, but it's my father's fault because he doesn't give me enough allowance!" As a parent, I found it a bit terrifying to contemplate. My one gripe is that William's repeated errors and crimes are precisely that--repeated--and I found myself skimming at points in the narrative because it was just another incident of his bad judgment. But as a researcher, I greatly admired Nicola Phillips's ability to make this individual story a lens into the historical period, illuminating many of the prevailing social and legal issues. I would recommend for anyone interested in early- to mid-1800s England.

[Éowyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's plenty of letters and journals preserved regarding royalty, aristocrats and other rich and famous people but less about more ordinary people. OK, so most of ancestors would have been peasants/yeomen who would have been unlikely to be able to read, but every so often something does turn up which throws some light on our understanding of what we might consider to be more ordinary people. The Paston letters are one famous example and the story presented in the book is another discovery along the same sort of lines.

Our story begins in India, with William Jackson, who will be the father of our 'profligate son'. It is while in India that he meets his future wife and several other influential connections. A major incident here also has an impact on this William's future. The Profligate Son of the title is the son of this William Jackson, also called William Jackson, just to confuse the issue! Jackson senior had returned to England and was a reasonably wealthy man of the new middle classes. He had, however, made his fortune in trade and was keen for his only son to receive a good education and go into the law - one of the gentlemanly occupations at this time.

Unfortunately, William was not particularly interested in a good education, but far more interested in pursuing what he considered 'gentlemanly' pursuits - being idle and frivolous, drinking conspicuous amounts and consorting with women of easy virtue! In spite of the admonitions of his father and the pleadings of his affectionate mother, William continued into a downward spiral - resorting to forgery and deception to gain what it really seems he believes he was entitled to. The Georgian world, in some ways not dissimilar to modern days, was largely built upon trades-persons extending credit, which allowed William to get away with so much. We follow our anti-hero through various prisons and courts until he is finally transported to Australia. I find it most amazing that he never seems to repent of what he has done and really seems to believe that there has been a miscarriage of justice against him!

This story has been preserved through the writings of Mr Jackson, the father, and the letters between various family members which have been preserved for all this time. an interesting insight into the seamier side of Georgian life - and perhaps a lesson for people in these times who are too apt to live upon credit!

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beware. This is scholarly research disguised as page-turning, how-will-he-get-out of-this-one narrative. Only the hardest of hearts could skim it for the bits they need for their own research; lesser folk — this reviewer included — are lured into reading it cover to cover. Worse, its detailed descriptions and explanations, especially its explanations of British debt law, are so thorough and memorable that your scope for hours of pleasant note-taking will be much reduced. Console yourself with the helpful footnotes and bibliography.

[Sarah W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very readable account of a young man's descent into vice and scandal, causing his family to disown him and his eventual transportation to Australia as a criminal. While presenting a story not entirely uncommon in Regency Britain, the author really hits her mark in the conclusion, when she draws the parallels between the Regency era and our era with our reliance on credit, living beyond our means, and the indebtedness of young people in society. Fascinating.

[Brenda Clough · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent view into the period and its laws and expectations. Alas! The actual subject, a boy rapidly going to the bad in spite of all the efforts of his family, is by no means unheard of in modern times. Take away the gin and the check forgery, and substitute in crack and credit card fraud, and you can read the story in your local paper.

A must-read for anyone who's writing Regency fiction.

[Adrian Tinniswood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this. A Rake's Progress for Regency England. And a splendid portrayal of the seamy side.

[Tim Evanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a nonfiction work which uses a case study about Regency Period nouveau riche Englishman William Jackson and his self-entitled nasty son, William Cameron Burke Jackson, to gain insight into the worlds of finance, credit, and crime.

The Regency (1811 to 1820) was a period of immense transitional change in Great Britain. It was recovering from the loss of the American colonies, it had largely finished the Napoleonic wars on the Continent, and the economy was rapidly turning away from mercantilism toward modern capitalism. It was a time of great moral change as well. King George III had long been a model of moral probity -- as a person, as a father, and as a leader. His son, the Prince of Wales (the future George IV), was not. He was a schemer, spent money (like a drunken sailor), had sex with hundreds of women (like a drunken sailor), and married a woman both beneath his station and of a religion which could not be accepted by the establishment (like a drunken sailor). His debts were so immense, Parliament needed to appropriate public funds to meet them -- and almost didn't. The concept of a bankrupt on the throne of England was almost too much to consider...

William Jackson, Sr., was a model man of his time. Immensely concerned with reputation and morality, he had gone to India as a young man. There he made his fortune with the East India Company. Indeed, even the massive East India Company -- which ruled India and much of Asia aas a personal kingdom -- was rapidly being nationalized and secular, government (instead of rapacious mercantile exploitation) imposed on England's Asian colonies. Returning to England, he set himself up as one of the "new gentry", with a townhouse in London, a manor house in the Midlands, and a summer home in the West Country.

Enter his son, William Cameron Burke Jackson, Jr. He was an only son, and coddled by his mother while his father was still in India making money. He grew up believing himself special, unique, entitled, and so unlike the common man.

Jackson's descent into immorality and profligate spending began in his middle teens. Nicola Phillips glosses over his early childhood somewhat (mostly due to a lack of information about it), and begins William Jr.'s story as he is 14 years old and being sent to "school" for the first time.

Phillips explores the changing world of education in England during the Regency, a time in which public boarding schools were quickly gaining the public's approval and notice as high-quality providers of education. Mr. Jackson, however, was faced with trying to provide his son with an education "appropriate" to his class as wealthy landed gentry. Other educational forms -- such as the home tutor, private boarding school, and the "new school" (essentially intense tutuoring in a small group of 15 or so, usually by a member of the clergy) -- were also options. Mr. Jackson also wanted to set William up in a career. Joining the East India Company and making another fortune seems out of the question, because Mr. Jackson had left the company under a cloud, because Mr. Jackson felt it wasn't appropriate for moral reasons, and because Mr. Jackson felt William's somewhat fragile health would not permit it.

William Jr., unfortunately, was by this time a complete snob. Sent to a private boarding school, his snobbish peers only reinforced the sense of entitlement and attitude he unfortunately already had mounds of.

William's school years are explored in depth by Phillips. Father and son exchanged a vast number of letters in which they discussed William's behavior and one another's reactions to it. Mr. Jackson's horror at his son's licentiousness (using prostitutes, excessive drinking, playing hookey from school, running up vast debts, playing the dandy, lying, and attending lewd entertainment) was compounded by intense anxiety. For William Jr. was more like the Prince Regent -- with his many mistresses, his immense and costly wardrobe, his love of bawdiness and sensuality, his indulgence in drink -- than a model of moral probity.

By the time he is 17, William Jr. has slept with several hundred hookers, gotten venereal disease more than once, run away from school and disappeared in London for a week, and managed to alienate many of his friends (most of whom straightened up and flew right later in life). His debts were more than £800 -- about double his father's annual income! Phillips uses William's easy ability to secure long-term credit to examine the way the marketplace functioned in Regency England, and how debt collection and the law worked to both protect creditors and exploit them.

Although Mr. Jackson once wanted a career in the law for his son, William Jr. declared that he wanted life as a dashing, well-dressed soldier. A commission in the British Army was purchased, and William screwed that up, too.

If all of this sounds a bit The Magnificent Ambersons, it is. And no, the story does not end well.

Using the William Cameron Burke Jackson story, Phillips closely describes and analyzes the way bankruptcy, debtor's prison, the legal system, and the penal system, criminal "transportation" to the colonies, and colonial government worked in the early 1800s.

Phillips' writing style is clean and engaging. Her ability to describe even the most intricte of legal questions or the most arcane of financial questions is quite strong, and she rarely digresses into irrelevant material.

There are weak parts in the book, primarily toward the end. This is more due to the lack of facts, letters, and supporting documentation than any failure on Phillips' part.

I highly recommend this book as a great peek into the way fashion, credit, law, debt, and the penal system worked in England from 1800 to 1830.

[Jill Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you think YOU have problems with a wild teenage son or a disobedient daughter? Is a lot of your money going to lawyers to keep your kids out of trouble and pay off the debts they've acquired using unscrupulous means? Has your credit rating bottomed out? Well, as odious as all that is today, the same familial crises were occurring hundreds of years ago and British author Nicola Phillips tells the story of one such family in her new book, "The Profligate Son: Or a True story of Family Conflict, Fashionable Vice, and Financial Ruin in Regency Britain".

William Collins Jackson had left England in the 1780's to work for the East India Company and make his fortune. Despite some setbacks along the way in Madras, he did well, and after marrying an Englishwoman who had been visiting India, he and his wife and their new son returned to England. The son - the younger William Jackson - was born in 1791 and was the apple of his mother's eye and the bane of his father's existence.

Young William was, from an early age, a wastrel and drinker and an all-around troublemaker. Despite his father's attempt to educate his son, William either fled or was kicked out of every preparatory school he was enrolled in. He drank and debauched women - most of whom cooperated in the debauchery - and lied. But what William did without any thought at all was to run up bills by charging items to his father. Now, this was a time when credit of a sort was extended by stores to "gentlemen" who seemed to promise by their clothes and addresses to be worthy of that credit. Those stores along Bond Street and neighboring West End streets were particularly anxious to extend credit and enhance their own commercial standing. For years, young William bounced from jail to jail, convicted of forgery and theft, until he was finally exiled to Australia. And it was there he died - a hopeless alcoholic, estranged from his wealthy family in England.

The story of the Jackson family and the road to ruin that the son set forth on from an early age is, in its own way, tragic. He seemed incapable of turning his life around but, perhaps, he had never been on a good path. From an early age, William Jackson - a handsome and charming young man - was unable to control his spending and his parents, after a time, refused to continue to bail him out. At what point do parents look at a situation that seems lost and just decide to cut their losses and set their profligate child afloat? It's not an easy decision today, and it was no less easy 200 years ago.

Nicola Phillips's book is a fascinating look at a time - Regency England - where appearances were everything in society and the means to support those appearances were of vital importance. Phillips looks at the Regency society through the William Jackson family and its problems.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of a young man in Regency Britain who lied, cheated and forged to keep up his fabulous life style. His well-to-do religions father, as stern as any fictional father in a Victorian novel, struggles with how to deal with his incorrigible offspring (and writes it all down, allowing us to learn about it 2 centuries later).

The son, at age 20, is convicted of forgery, then a capital crime. He is sent to Australian as a "lenient" solution.

The book is an good look at the downside of the "glamorous" life we see in period costume dramas. It's well written.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made for a great start for this year. I seem to have read an exceptional amount of bad books last year, including a 1 star read for my first, so I’m glad this was my first read for this year. I’ve actually had the book on my shelf for over three years but had put off reading it because, although I was interested in the subject matter, I expected it to be quite dry considering. I’m glad I was wrong. Exceedingly well researched, nicely paced and thoroughly readable, it is a really well written book of historical significance, capturing both a specific story but also a broader look at the morals, values, and social issues in Regency Britain.

[Ronan Beckman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was riveted by this compelling tale of a boy who kept making the wrong choices. As much as you'll want to slap some sense into him, you will still want to keep reading to find out how much further down the ladder of respectability he has gone. Fabulous research and scholarship behind a very readable and fascinating story.

[Lily Webber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good account of life in Britain at the time of prison overcrowding and transportation to Australia. Young students just wanted to have fun but got caught up in family expectations not ready for the sexual revolution to come later. If you had a good lawyer you may get a second chance.

[Isblue · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally finished.

[Nate M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing story and storytelling.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a biography of sorts that examines the conflict and relationship between an early 19th century father and son. The father is a man who has a strong and firm worth ethic, having made some money in the East India Company but who has left under a cloud of some scandal. He didn't make his fortune due to his own ethics like many but he did well enough but attributes it to honesty and hard work. Apparently his son didn't get the message. His schooling from about the age of 14 becomes difficult. He doesn't enjoy it and won't settle down, causing trouble and flouting rules. His father has difficulty trying to find schools to take him, mainly focussing on small private schools run by ministers rather than sending his son to places like Eton or the "name" schools where he would no doubt be thrown out in 5 minutes anyway given how he usually behaves.

The son is intent on living his life like the "gentlemen" dandies of the day who mirror the excesses of the Prince Regent. He drinks, gambles, and spends like money is water. His father pays his debts at first and then refuses. He finally gets permission to join the army but makes a hash of that as well due to his rule breaking and debts. Over time, the young man ends up in debtors' prison several times and though manages to escape the hangman, is transported to Australia where his life doesn't end up much differently. It's a sad tale of ruin.

The father had kept much of his correspondence which is what the author used initially to write the book and then researched the rest of what happened to the father and son as well through records. The son's lifestyle wasn't all that different from many young men of the day, some had the financial backing of their family to pull them out and some didn't. It was an interesting view on life in that time period. There was the Duchess of Devonshire, Georgiana, who was a famous socialite who was also mired in debt trying to keep up appearances and you can see how this sort of thing can happen when appearances are everything in that class of society either by those that are in it or by those that want to be in it or seen to be in it.

[Robyn Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book immensely for the background it provided into the true state of class and conventions in Regency England. Nicola Phillips had obviously researched the whole era well, and, more particularly, the Jackson family, of whom the son, William, was the subject of the book.
Although tales of debauchery and riotous living abound of this era, it was still a shock as Phillips laid out in gruesome detail the events and behavior of each succeeding phase of William's life, from his expulsions from several schools to his equally non-studious life at university and subsequent negative experiences there.
William was convinced his life would be fixed when he inherited his father's estate and also believed that he was a ''gentleman" and as long as he looked and sounded like one, he could rely on his father to pay his debts, incurred because of the "devilish cheek" of the tradesmen he preyed on!
You forget quite how much the phrase "clothes maketh the man" applied in that time. Appearance was vitally important in maintaining a charade, if you looked the part, generally, you were regarded as the part, unless your crimes compounded to the extent that William's did and you ended up in debtors' prison and on "hulks" on the Thames (naval ships converted to prison ships) before being deported to Australia.
William's fortunes really turned for the worse there and he became a fully-fledged alcoholic by the end of his twenties, dropping to the ground in a Sydney street and dying, having lost his wife and family
and any communication with his mother (his father had already died).
A sad story, but one in which miscommunication between the generations played a huge part, as well as William's deluded beliefs about his own superiority because of his status.

[QOH · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up at Powell's a few days ago on a whim (remaindered, although I had to climb up on a big ladder to get to the overstock to find it vs. the full price copy) and read it in a day. William Jackson is the template for a would-be Regency rake, except he doesn't have his father's hard-earned money from working at the East India Company. His father, very much middle class, disapproves of his only son and would could blame him? He cheats, lies, and steals; he consorts with prostitutes and runs away from school; the one time he went into the Army it was a disaster.

And it's heart wrenching, truly, watching someone with so much promise destroy himself. It's the real deal. (Perversely, I enjoy this sort of book because it makes me feel marginally better about my own lack of familial bonhomie.)

But it makes for very good reading. Ms. Phillips's prose is effortless, and while footnoted (thank you, baby Jesus and Ms. Philipps) with great, sometimes gossipy footnotes, it's a book a layperson can easily read. No Regency history background required, although it is a must for any author wishing to write a scoundrel into a Regency romance!

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really interesting. William, the son of the title, is a disaster - you just want to shake him. His family's dynamics in general were pretty bad. But there's a lot of good stuff about the British judicial and penal systems of the day. The last part of the book concerns transportation to Australia, with information about how that system worked and what it was like for the convicts once they got there.

[Jessica - How Jessica Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating! A look at the dark side of Regency life.