Abel Magwitch Abel Magwitch Abel Magwitch is a fictional character from Charles Dickens's 1861 novel, "Great Expectations". Charles Dickens set his story in about 1800, setting his character Abel Magwitch to meet a man called Compeyson at the Epsom Races. Compeyson, Dickens wrote, had been brought up in a boarding school and was an attractive, charming gentleman. Magwitch, at the same time, began a relationship with a mentally unstable woman named Molly, who later stood trial for murder. Jaggers, her defense attorney, convinced the jury that she was too weak to have strangled the woman. Molly was acquitted and became (unknown to
Abel Magwitch the infirmary when Pip at last tells him that his child, Estella, is alive. Pip goes on to tell him that she is a beautiful lady and that he, Pip, was in love with her. Pip has found this information out, as Wemmick told him Molly's story and he recognized her to be Estella's mother. With a last pressure on Pip's hand, Magwitch dies a good and very content man. Charles Barrow, Charles Dickens' maternal grandfather, had been the Head of the Moneys Section at the Navy Pay Office. In 1810 it was found that he had been systematically falsifying