The Profligate Son

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 1 JUL. 2013

William Jackson "had once been the apple of his fond father's eye," yet at just 20 years old, he found himself in jail awaiting trial and a possible death sentence for forgery. Drawing on hundreds of letters, prison and court records, and William Jackson Sr.'s unpublished, self-serving account of his son's downfall (Filial Ingratitude; Or, The Profligate Son), Phillips (Women in Business) draws a portrait of a tortured father-son relationship, likening it to the inflexible King George III's critical rapport with his debt-saddled, voluptuary eldest son which strained relationship many blame for the latter's indiscretions. William Jr., for his part, frequented brothels, racked up enormous debts to acquire "all the essential accoutrements" of a fashionable gentleman, and at 18 was impelled to sell his military commission to get out of the red. In and out of debtors' prisons and court at the Old Bailey, William seemed hell-bent on becoming the profligate son, a reprehensible "stock character" in the arts of the age. He succeeded faster than he could've imagined. This is an engrossing tale of a Regency rake's fast times and tragic unraveling that vivifies the history of Georgian England and colonial Sydney, Australia. 14 b&w images and 2 maps.