Mary Hogarth Dickens' first child was named Mary in her memory. Hogarth was the daughter of George Hogarth (1783–1870), a music critic, cellist and composer, and Georgina Hogarth Thompson (1793–1863). She was born in Edinburgh, where her father was a legal advisor to Walter Scott, whom the young Charles Dickens greatly admired. She was the fourth of ten children, and the third daughter. Hogarth was named after her paternal grandmother. The name Mary Scott had previously been given to George and Georgina's third child, born 1817 or 1818, who was an infant when she died. Mary and her sister Catherine first met
Hogarth Painting the Comic Muse is now marked with black and on the pillar she stands beside is inscribed "Comedy 1764". The , which is depicted on the right, has nothing inscribed on it but "William Hogarth, 1764" on the bottom. Through this engraving, the early Georgian elbow chair in which Hogarth is shown sitting gave rise in the late nineteenth century to the collectors' and dealers' designation of "Hogarth chair" for similar bended-back elbow chairs with vase-shaped splats, slip seats (upholstered over a drop-in frame) and cabriole legs on pad feet. Such chairs from the American colonies are designated "Queen Anne chairs", perpetuating an