GODWIN, WILLLAM, an English author, was b. at Wisbeacb, in Cambridgeshire, Mar. 3, 1756. His father and grandfather were Presbyterian ministers, and he was educated to the same. profession, first at a school at Norwich, to which place his father had removed in. 1767, where lie made rapid progress in classical studies, and afterward at a Presbyterian college at where he pursued his theological studies. From 1778 to 1783, lie was mlnister to a congregation in the neighborhood of Loudon; but the zeal with which he first entered upon his duties declined, and a change in his theological opinions made it necessary for him to resign his charge. His only resource was to remove to the metropolis, s,nd engage in literature. His first work, a series of Historical Sketches, in the form of sermons, was unsuccessful, and he was reduced to penury and despair; but they made him acquainted with Fox, Sheridan, and other Whig leaders, and he turned his attention to politics. The American revolution, closely followed by that of France, excited the public mind, and Godwin wrote his Inquiry Concerning Political Justice, 1793. This was followed by The Adventures of Caleb Williams, a remarkable novel, intended to illustrate the political views advanced in the Political Justice. An able defense of Horne Tooke and others, published in the Horning Chronicle, advanced his reputation; and in 1797 he published The Inquirer, a collection of essays on morals and polities. About this time, he formed an alliance with Mary Wollstonecraft, the celebrated author of the Rights of Woman, and adopted and defended her extreme social views. After some months, however, they yielded so far to custom as to be
married. His wife died a short time after in giving birth to a daughter, who after wards became the second wife of the poet Shelley. In 1799 he published St. Leon, a romance; and the next year visited Ireland, where he associated with Curran, Grattan, and other eminent Irish political leaders. He ailso consoled himself for the loss of his wife by writing her memoirs. In 1801 he married again, and had a son, who died of cholera in 1832. To secure a more certain support, Godwin and his wife opened a circulating library, but he also worked indefatigably with his pen to the end of his life. He wrote many school-books, an admirable Life of Chaucer (1801); Fleetwood. a novel, 3 vols. (1805); Mandeville, in 1817; a' Treatise on. Population, a refutation of Malthus, in 1820; a History of the Republic of England, in 4 vols. Cloudesley (1830); T houghts on Han (1833) As he grew old, he modified his opinions on politics and society, and especially on marriage, which he warmly commends in some of his later works. Being now 77 years old, he was appointed to a place under government, which removed him from the apprehension of want; but he knew not how to be idle, and wrote Deloraine, a novel, and the Lives of the Necromancers. Many of his works were translated into foreign languages. He died in London, April 7, 1836.—See William Godwin, by C. Regan Pauf(1876).