3

Mary’s father, the philosopher William Godwin, had died on 7 April and Mary wrote this letter “in haste” while making the final arrangements for the funeral. He was to be buried at Saint Pancras churchyard, which housed her mother Mary Wollstonecraft’s tomb. In this letter she asks Trelawny whether he could “go with the Undertaker to fix on the spot - ‘the nearest practicable to my mother’s tomb’”. Mary’s application was successful, since her parents were buried in the same tomb, which is still in existence even today though their remains were moved in 1851 to Bournemouth, where Mary Shelley herself was buried that year.

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851 (sender)
Trelawny, Edward John, 1792-1881 (recipient)

1836 April 10

3 sheets

manuscript

paper

eng

autographs (manuscripts)
letters (correspondence)

Byron, George Gordon Byron Baron, 1788-1824
Godwin, William, 1756-1836

funerals

London (England)

1836

Gift of Colonel and Mrs Call, 1912.

Mrs Call’s father was Trelawny.

KSH

Terrace Room

SHL-2.21