A CHRONOLOGY OF WILLIAM GODWIN

1756	3 March: Born at Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, the seventh of thirteen children, son of a dissenting minister.
1767	Becomes a pupil of Samuel Newton in Norwich.
1772	Death of his father, John Godwin.
1773	Admitted to Hoxton Dissenting Academy, having been turned down by Homerton Academy for unorthodox, Sandemanian views.
1778–83	Graduates from Hoxton. Becomes minister at Ware in Hertfordshire, and subsequently holds positions with various dissenting congregations before abandoning the ministry and settling in London.
1783	Publishes a life of Chatham and several minor works, political, historical, literary, and religious.
1784	Publishes three short novels, Damon and Delia, Italian Letters, and Imogen. July: Is employed on the New Annual Register (until 1791).
1785	Employed by Richard Brinsley Sheridan on the Whig periodical Political Herald (acting as editor in 1786, until it collapses in December).
1786	Meets the playwright Thomas Holcroft, who becomes his closest friend.
1787	First of three motions for repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts moved by Henry Beaufoy in March 1787 and May 1789, and by Charles James Fox in March 1790, coupled with an active extraparliamentary campaign.
1788	Begins the diary, which he keeps systematically until two months before his death.
1789	4 May: Estates General convened at Versailles. 14 July: Storming of the Bastille in Paris. 6 October: March on Versailles and the return of the royal family to Paris.
1790	January: Godwin commences his tragedy St Dunstan, completing it in December. 1 November: Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France published, initiating ‘the revolution controversy’. 29 November: Mary Wollstonecraft publishes her Vindication of the Rights of Men.
1791	February, March: Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man published. 6 May: Edmund Burke publicly breaks his political and personal friendship with Charles James Fox over the latter’s support for France. June: Godwin agrees terms with G. G. J. Robinson, his publisher, for a work on ‘Political Principles’. 20 June: Flight to Varennes by the French royal family, followed by their forced return to Paris. 10 July: ‘Political Principles’ contract signed. 14 July: Anti-Dissenter riots in Birmingham. 17 July: Massacre of the Champ de Mars, Paris. September: Godwin begins work on An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice. 13 September: French king accepts new Constitution.
1792	January: Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman published. April: War between France and Austria and the German states. September: Massacres in Paris. 20 September: First major French victory at Valmy and inauguration of the French National Assembly. November: Attends the trial in absentia of Thomas Paine and attends his first dinner at John Horne Tooke’s in Wimbledon. December: Trial of the French king, Louis Capet.
1793	14 January: Louis found guilty. 20 January: Death of Louis decreed. 21 January: Louis executed. 1 February: France declares war on Britain. 14 February: An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice published; February–March: Godwin writes four letters to the Morning Chronicle attacking the loyalist response to reformers. September: The Scottish radicals Thomas Muir and Thomas Fyshe Palmer sentenced to transportation for sedition. December: Godwin attends his first meeting of the debating club the Philomaths.
1794	March: Joseph Gerrald and other radicals from the British Convention of the Delegates of the People, Associated to Obtain Universal Suffrage and Annual Parliaments held in Edinburgh in December 1793 sentenced to transportation or sedition. 12 May: Arrest of Thomas Hardy, John Thelwall, John Horne Tooke, and others on suspicion of treason. 26 May: Godwin’s Things As They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams published. October: Detained radicals charged with treason; Thomas Holcroft arrested; Godwin writes Cursory Strictures. 5 November–5 December: Hardy, Horne Tooke, and Thelwall acquitted. December 1794–October 1795: Godwin revises Political Justice for a second edition.
1795	November: Gagging Acts against treasonable practices and unlawful assemblies introduced, prompting Godwin’s pamphlet Considerations on Lord Grenville and Mr Pitt’s Bills.
1796	8 January: Meets Mary Wollstonecraft at Mary Hays’s lodgings. 21 August: Godwin and Wollstonecraft become lovers.
1797	February: Publishes essays, The Enquirer: Reflections on Education, Manners and Literature. March: Godwin and Wollstonecraft marry. 30 August: Birth of Mary Godwin. 10 September: Death of Mary Wollstonecraft. December: Publishes the third edition of Political Justice, revised between March and July.
1798	January: Memoirs of the Author of ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ published. May: Irish rebellion.
1799	December: Godwin’s novel St Leon published.
1800	June–August: Visits John Philpott Curran in Ireland. December: His play Antonio performed.
1801	May: Meets Mary Jane Clairmont. June: His Reply to Parr published. October: Truce between Britain and France. November: Godwin’s application for a passport to visit France rejected. December: Marries Mary Jane Clairmont.
1802	Napoleon becomes consul for life.
1803	March: Birth of William Godwin junior. May: Resumption of war with France.
1804	Napoleon declared emperor.
1805	February: His novel Fleetwood published. June: The Godwins open a children’s bookshop. He writes a series of books for schools under several pseudonyms over the next six years. October: Battle of Trafalgar.
1807	Bookshop moves to Skinner Street, Strand. December: His tragedy Faulkener performed.
1812	October: Meets Percy Bysshe Shelley in London.
1813	January: Meets the utopian philanthropist Robert Owen.
1814	April: Napoleon abdicates. July: Shelley absconds to France with Mary Shelley and Godwin’s stepdaughter Jane Clairmont.
1815	March: Napoleon escapes from Elba. June: Battle of Waterloo.
1816	April: Journey to Scotland, meets Walter Scott. October: Fanny Godwin commits suicide. 7 December: Suicide of Shelley’s wife, Harriet. 30 December: Shelley and Mary Godwin marry and Godwin visits them, acknowledging Mary for the first time since July 1814.
1817	December: His novel Mandeville published.
1819	March: Civil suit brought against him for non-payment of rent; the court case drags on until 1823. August: Peterloo massacre in Manchester.
1820	November: Of Population published, being a reply to Thomas Malthus’ Essay on Population, first published in 1798 but substantially revised for a second edition in 1803, and republished in 1817 with further changes.
1822	July: Shelley drowns.
1824	February: Volume I of Godwin’s History of the Commonwealth published, with subsequent volumes in 1826, 1827, and 1828.
1825	Declared bankrupt and leaves Skinner Street shop.
1830	March: His novel Cloudesley published.
1831	February: Publishes Thoughts on Man, his Nature, Productions and Discoveries, his first major philosophical work since The Enquirer (1798).
1832	Reform Act passed by Parliament and receives royal assent. September: Death of William Godwin junior from cholera. October: Drafts a prospectus for a new edition of Political Justice.
1833	February: His novel Deloraine published. April: After lobbying the prime minister Lord Melbourne, Godwin is offered the post of yeoman usher in the Exchequer, which provides lodgings in New Palace Yard and a stipend.
1834	June: Lives of the Necromancers published.
1836	26 March: Godwin makes the last entry in his diary. 7 April: William Godwin dies.