The Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes
Essays by Liese Sherwood-Fabre, PhD
on
Sherlock Holmes and Victorian England
1) In Search of Sherlock Holmes: The Life of a Country Squire
2) Sherlock Holmes’ French Connection
3) Inheritance and the Fate of Second Sons
In Search of Sherlock Holmes: The Life of a Country Squire
In the short story “The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter,” Sherlock Holmes tells Dr. Watson
that his ancestors were “country squires.” And other than that bit of information, along with the
note that his grandmother was the sister of the French portraitist Vernet, Doyle provided little
with respect to his most famous character’s origins.
Knowing his father might have been country squire as well, however, provides insights into
Holmes’ social level and certain expectations common to those of his rank. A country squire
would have owned enough land to rent to tenants and have lived in a manor house. While the
squire’s position was below a nobleman or large landowner,1 he still ranked high in the local
social structure.
In addition to running his estate and ensuring the welfare of those under his tenancy, the country
squire also held the position of Justice of the Peace. In this capacity, the squire had both civil and
legal duties. Within the local government, the justices supervised parish (or county) officials, in
particular those in charge of the maintenance of roads and bridges and the enforcement of the
Poor Laws. 2 As a legal position, Justices of the Peace served as magistrates during the Quarter
Sessions, where they and a jury heard and decided on serious crimes such as theft, highway
robbery, assault, burglary, rioting, drunkenness, profane swearing, and a variety of crimes
against property (poaching, cutting estate timber and the like. Between these sessions, the
justices would hold petty sessions where the least serious crimes were reviewed and decisions
made without a jury.3
Because the English system did not include a prosecutor for almost all crimes, the preparation of
a case rested with the constable, from collecting evidence to presenting it at trial. Justices of the
peace supervised and worked closely with the village constable, issued warrants, and determined
whether to move a case to trial and to which court.4
As a member of the gentry, Sherlock Holmes would have been in a position of privilege. If his
father was a Justice of the Peace, he would have developed a familiarity with the criminal justice
system and the law. For the consulting detective, the foundation for investigating and solving
crimes would have come naturally to a descendant of country squires.
1
Daniel Pool, What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew (New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc ., 1993), 46.
Sally Mitchell, Daily Life in Victorian England (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996), 90.
3
“Victorian Crime and Punishment,” accessed February 16, 2015. http://vcp.e2bn.org/
4
J.J. Tobias, Crime and Police in England: 1700-1900 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1979), 125.
2
Sherlock Holmes’ French Connection
In The Greek Interpreter, Sherlock Holmes gives two clues of his past. In addition to noting his
ancestors were country squires, he also shares that art was in his blood, given his grandmother
was the sister of Vernet, the French artist.
Some speculation exists as to which Vernet. Three generations of Vernets garnered patronage
from both the French monarchy and Napoleon: Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714 – 1789); Antoine
Charles Horace Vernet, known as Carle Vernet (1758 – 1836); and Émile Jean-Horace Vernet,
known as Horace Vernet (1789 – 1863)5. Simple mathematics suggests the most logical choice
would be the youngest Vernet. For Sherlock and Mycroft’s mother to be between twenty and
twenty-five at marriage, she would have to have been born between 1821-1826. Taking another
twenty to twenty-five years or so for Sherlock’s grandmother to be born, means a birth date of
about 1795 - 1800 or earlier, clearly putting her as a contemporary of Horace.
In reality, Horace Vernet had one sister: Camille Françoise Joséphine (1788-1858) who married
the French painter Hippolyte Lecomte (1781-1857) and whose son, Charles Emile Hippolyte
Lecomte-Vernet, was also a painter6.
Obviously, Doyle could not have selected a better family than the Vernet dynasty to provide
Sherlock his inherited artistic tendencies. Claude-Joseph was known for his landscapes and
seascapes7; Carle for his realistic horses, based on his own knowledge as an expert horseman8;
and Horace for portraits and realistic battle scenes9. A little research also supplies some
interesting facts for additional color in Sherlock’s “ancestry.” Horace Vernet was born in the
Louvre, and his father, fleeing with his wife and children, barely escaped being shot during the
French Revolution. Horace was also known for having an incredible memory, able to sketch a
scene or face seen only once with total recall10.
The Vernet family had an English connection as well. Claude-Joseph married an English woman,
Virginia Parker, during his time in Italy, and British visitors on the Grand Tour were his most
loyal patrons.11 It might have this British link that provided the basis for selecting the Vernet
family for Sherlock’s artistic inheritance, but his great-uncle’s ability to remember a location
years later seems quite Holmesian as well.
5
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Joseph_Vernet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippolyte_Lecomte
7
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Joseph_Vernet
8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carle_Vernet
9
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Vernet
10
David Bartlet, Paris with Pen and Pencil
11
http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/biography/16017.html
6
Inheritance and the Fate of Second Sons
The brief review of the fate of Sir Charles’ estate in chapter five of the Hounds of the
Baskervilles provides a short guide to English inheritance laws applied primarily to the
aristocracy and other large landowners.12 In this chapter, Dr. Mortimer notes that Henry
Baskerville will inherit Baskerville Hall because it is entailed, and should he pass, the estate
would then go to James Desmond, a distant cousin. Sir Henry, however, could distribute funds
associated with the estate as he desired. The new baronet’s response, however, was that the
majority of the estate needed to be passed to the next in line to ensure the upkeep of Baskerville
Hall.
When Sir Charles died, his title of baronet and all the land associated with it passed on to his
closest living male relation (his nephew Henry) and would have done so regardless of any living
female relatives. Beyond the oldest male descendent, any other children received whatever their
father’s will dictated. Thus, wives, daughters, and “second sons” could find themselves homeless
if the inheritor was so inclined to turn them out (such as the fate of the Dashwood women in Jane
Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility.) With such future, most women sought as “fortunate” a
marriage as possible while younger brothers prepared themselves to earn their own way, usually
in such class-appropriate professions as the clergy or the military—although a “fortunate”
marriage of their own was not out of the question.13 Some even took to go abroad such as Sir
Henry’s father did to Canada and Rodger Baskerville to Central America.
Given his country squire ancestry, Sherlock Holmes would have been all too aware that, with an
older brother, he could anticipate little inheritance. As a “second son,” he would have to make
his own way in the world, and he carved out his own vocation. Unlike the traditional path,
however, he created the unique profession of consulting detective.
Not only did English inheritance law in the 1800s provide the basis for the motive in many a
plot, it also helped create one of its most intriguing and popular characters.
12
https://americancountess.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/the-entailment-or-how-the-english-aristocracyperpetuateditself-and-why-lady-mary-will-never-the-countess-of-grantham/
13
http://blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org/inbox/tag/inheritance-law/