Note 416 — MISCELLANEOUS RECOLLECTIONS A SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER BEGUN IN 1826 (continued 2)

[Thomas Holcroft (1745-1809), son of a London shoemaker, who fell into difficulties and turned pedlar. Young Holcroft accompanied his father on his wanderings, and became a stable-boy at Newmarket at the age of thirteen. Returning to London, he worked for some time at the shoemaking trade, which he then abandoned for the stage. He began to contribute articles to the newspapers about the same time, and to write plays with some success, The Road to Ruin being his best-known composition. He became deeply imbued with the principles of the French Revolution, and was indicted, in 1794, with Thomas Hardy and others, for high treason; but his case was dismissed without a trial. He was four times married.]