JERROLD, DOUGLAS WILLIAM (1803-1857), English dramatist and man of letters, was born in London on Jan. 3, 1803. His father, Samuel Jerrold, actor, was at that time lessee of the little theatre of Wilsby near Cranbrook in Kent, but in 1807 he removed to Sheerness. Dec. 1813 the son joined the guardship "Namur," and served as midshipman until the peace of 1815. He saw nothing of the war save a number of wounded soldiers from Waterloo ; but till his dying day there lingered traces of his early passion for the sea. The peace of 1815 ruined Samuel Jerrold; there was no more prize money. On Jan. 1, 1816, he removed with his family to London, where the ex-midshipman began the world again as a printer's apprentice, and in 1819 became a compositor in the printing-office of the Sunday Monitor.
Jerrold soon began to write for the press, and then for the stage. His first piece was a comedy More Frightened than Hurt (Sadler's Wells, 1821), and he was presently engaged by Davidge at the Coburg theatre to produce dramas and farces at a few pounds a week. In 1829 he made a resounding success with the three-act melodrama, Black-eyed Susan (Surrey theatre). He now achieved a salary of 15 a week as dramatic writer, and was independent enough to refuse to do adaptations. The Bride of Ludgate (Dec. 8, 1831) was the first of a number of his plays produced at Drury Lane. The other patent houses threw their doors open to him also (the Ade1phi had already done so) ; and in 1836 Jerrold became co-manager of the Strand theatre with W. J. Hammond, his brother-in-law. The venture was not suc cessful, and the partnership was dissolved. While it lasted Jerrold wrote his only tragedy, The Painter of Ghent, and himself ap peared in the title-role. He continued to write sparkling comedies till 1854, the date of his last piece, The Heart of Gold.
Meanwhile he was a contributor to the Monthly Magazine, Blackwood's, the New Monthly, and the Athenaeum. To Punch, the publication which of all others is associated with his name, he contributed from its second number in 1841 till within a few days of his death. He founded and edited for some time, though with indifferent success, the Illuminated Magazine, Jerrold's Shilling Magazine, and Douglas Jerrold's Weekly Newspaper; and under his editorship Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper rose from almost non entity to a circulation of 182,000. Douglas Jerrold died at his
house, Kilburn Priory, in London, on June 8, 1857.
Among the best known of his numerous works are: Men of Charac ter (1838), including "Job Pippin: The man who couldn't help it," and other sketches of the same kind; Cakes and Ale (2 vols., 1842), a collection of short papers and whimsical stories; some more serious novels-The Story of a Feather The Chronicles of Clovernook (1846), A Man made of Money (1849), and St. Giles and St. James (1851) ; and various series of papers reprinted from Punch-Punch's Letters to his Son (1843), Punch's Complete Letter-writer (1845), and the famous Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures (1846).
See W. B. Jerrold, Life and Remains of Douglas Jerrold (1859) ; and W. Jerrold, Douglas Jerrold (2 vols., 1914). A collected edition of his writings appeared in 1851-54, and The Works of Douglas Jerrold, with a memoir by his son, W. B. Jerrold, in 1863-64 ; but neither is com plete. Among the numerous selections from his tales and witticisms are two edited by his grandson, Walter Jerrold, Bons Mots of Charles Dickens and Douglas Jerrold (new ed. 1904), and The Essays of Doug las Jerrold (19°3), illustrated by H. M. Brock. See also The Wit and Opinions of Douglas Jerrold (1858), ed. W. B. Jerrold.
His eldest son, WILLIAM BLANCHARD JERROLD (1826-1884), was editor of Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper from 1857 to 1883. During the Civil War in America he strongly supported the i and several of his leading articles were reprinted and placarded in New York by the Federal Government. Four of his plays were successfully produced on the London stage, the popular farce Cool as a Cucumber (Lyceum, 1851) being the best known.
Among his books are A Story of Social Distinction (1848), Life and Remains of Douglas Jerrold (1859), up and Down in the World (1863), The Children of Lutetia (1864), Cent per Cent (1871), At Home in Paris (1871), The Best of all Good Company (1871-73), Life of Napoleon III. and The Life of George Cruikshank (1882).