William Godwin: his Friends and Contemporaries
Ch. X. 1797
William Godwin, Journal, August-September 1797
“Aug. 30, W.—‘Mary’ p. 116. Fell and Dyson call:
dine at Reveley’s: Fenwicks and M. sup: Blenkinsop. Birth of Mary, 20 minutes after 11 at night. From 7 to
10, Evesham Buildings.” [This refers to a change of lodgings.]
„ 31, Th.—Fetch Dr
Poignard: Fordyce calls:
in the evening Miss G. and L. J. M.
Reveley and Tuthil:
J. G. calls.
Sep. 1, F.—Call on Robinson, Nicholson, Carlisle, and
M. Hays: Johnson calls: favourable appearances.
„ 2, Sa.—Carlisle, Montagu, Tuthil, and
M. Reveley call: worse in the
evening. Nurse.
„ 3, Su.—Montagu breakfasts: call with him on Wolcot, Opie, Laurence and
Dr Thompson. Shivering fits: Fordyce twice. Poignard,
Blenkinsop and nurse.
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“Sep. 4, M.—Blenkinsop: puppies [Dr Fordyce now forbade the patient to nurse
her child, and puppies were employed to draw off the milk]. Johnson and Nicholson call: Masters
calls. E. Fenwick and M. sleep. M.
Hays calls. Pichegrn,
arrested.
„ 5, Tu.—Fordyce twice: Clarke in the afternoon. M.
Hays calls.
„ 6, W.—Carlisle calls: wine diet:
Carlisle from Brixton: Miss Jones sleeps.
„ 7, Th.—Barry, Reveley and Lowry call: dying in the
evening.
„ 8, F.—Opie and Tuthil call. Idea of death: solemn
communication. Barry: Miss G. sleeps.
„ 9, Sa.—Talk to her of Fanny and
Mary: Barry.
„ 10, Su.—20 minutes before 8
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James Barry (1741-1806)
Irish history painter, author, and member of the Royal Academy of Arts whose strong
personality made him an unpopular figure.
Sir Anthony Carlisle (1768-1840)
English surgeon and professor of anatomy at the Royal Academy (1808).
John Clarke (1760-1815)
Educated at St Paul's School and the University of Frankfurt, he was an obstetric
physician and writer in London.
Louisa Dibbin [née Jones] (1773-1836 fl.)
A friend of William Godwin’s sister Hannah, for a time she kept house for Godwin before
her marriage to Henry Dibbin in 1801.
George Dyson (1773-1822)
London merchant and sometimes friend of William Godwin; he was evidently a
painter.
Ralph Fell (d. 1814)
Improvident writer and friend of William Godwin and Charles Lamb; a native of Yorkshire,
he published
Memoirs of the Public Life of the late Right Honourable
Charles James Fox (1808).
Eliza Fenwick [née Jago] (1766-1840)
The daughter of Thomas Jago and wife of the journalist John Fenwick; she was a novelist
and member of the Wollstonecraft-Godwin. In 1814 she emigrated to Barbados and spent her
later years in the United States.
John Fenwick (d. 1823)
Radical author, improvident newspaper editor, and close friend of William Godwin. His
The Indian: A Farce (1800) was produced at Drury Lane.
George Fordyce (1736-1802)
London physician, the nephew of the Presbyterian writer James Fordyce; educated at
Aberdeen University, he was a member of Johnson's Literary Club and attended Mary
Wollstonecraft in her last days.
Maria Gisborne [née Barnes] (1770-1836)
The daughter of James Barnes, Turkey merchant, and friend of William Godwin and Mary
Wollstonecraft, and later of the Shelleys; her first marriage was to the architect Willey
Reveley, her second to John Gisborne (d. 1836).
Fanny Imlay Godwin (1794-1816)
The daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft and Gilbert Imlay; she lived in the Godwin household
and died a suicide.
Hannah Godwin (d. 1817)
The younger sister of William Godwin; she worked as a dressmaker in London.
John Godwin (d. 1805)
The son of the Rev. John Godwin (d. 1772) and the elder brother of William Godwin; he was
a clerk, a gambler and a drinker.
Mary Hays (1759-1843)
English writer who contributed to the
Monthly Magazine, traveled
in radical circles, and published an autobiographical novel,
Memoirs of
Emma Courtney (1796).
Joseph Johnson (1738-1809)
London bookseller at St. Paul's Churchyard; he published Erasmus Darwin, Mary
Wollstonecraft, Joseph Priestly, and William Wordsworth.
Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830)
English portrait painter who succeeded Joshua Reynolds as painter in ordinary to the king
(1792); he was president of the Royal Academy (1820).
James Marshall (d. 1832)
Translator and literary jobber; he was a schoolmate and bosom friend of William Godwin, a
drinking companion of Charles Lamb, and associate of Mary Shelley.
Martin Kedgwin Masters (1820 fl.)
Surgeon of Watford near London; he was a poet, playwright, and acquaintance of William
and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. He married Anne Tankard in 1794; she died in 1820 at age
54.
Basil Montagu (1770-1851)
An illegitimate son of the fourth earl of Sandwich, he was educated at Charterhouse and
Christ's College, Cambridge, and afterwards was a lawyer, editor, and friend of Samuel
Romilly, William Godwin, and William Wordsworth.
William John Godolphin Nicholls (1789 c.-1815)
Of Trereife in Cornwall, the son of William Nicholls; he was tutored by Charles Valentine
Le Grice, who in 1799 married his mother (née Mary Ustick) who would inherit the estate
upon the death of her son.
William Nicholson (1753-1815)
Originally an agent for Josiah Wedgwood, he pursued a career as a chemist, writer on
science, and projector; he was a friend of Thomas Holcroft and William Godwin.
John Opie (1761-1807)
English painter brought to attention by John Wolcot; he was a member of the Royal Academy
and the husband of the writer Amelia Opie whom he married in 1798.
Charles Pichegru (1761-1804)
Revolutionary general in France who was murdered in prison after objecting to Napoleon
and becoming a Royalist.
George Robinson (1736-1801)
London bookseller who published the
Critical Review (from 1774)
and the
Town and Country Magazine.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley [née Godwin] (1797-1851)
English novelist, daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecaft, and the second wife
of Percy Bysshe Shelley. She is the author of
Frankenstein (1818)
and
The Last Man (1835) and the editor of Shelley's works
(1839-40).
Sir George Leman Tuthill (1772-1835)
Educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, he was detained in France before
completing his medical education; he was physician to Westminster, Bridewell and Bethlem
hospitals. He was a friend of Thomas Manning and Charles Lamb; Mary Lamb was among his
patients.
John Wolcot [Peter Pindar] (1738-1819)
English satirist who made his reputation by ridiculing the Royal Academicians and the
royal family.
