Somerset Square
Chatterton’s elder sister, Mary Newton (1749-1804), lived here. She was duped into giving Chatterton’s correspondence to Sir Herbert Croft (1751-1816). Croft published information based on these letters in his novel, Love and Madness (1780). His poor treatment of Mary was discovered and exposed by Robert Southey twenty years later, when he was preparing his edition of Chatterton's work. Croft denied the accusations, in a pamphlet Chatterton and Love and Madness (1800) but not convincingly.
Mary wrote a letter in 1780 describing her brother to Croft, in which she says,
'He was a lover of truth from the earlyest dawn of reason, and nothing would move him so much as being bely'd. When in the school we were informed by the usher, his master depended on his verasity on all occations.'