William Godwin: his Friends and Contemporaries
Ch. III. 1788-1792
William Godwin, Journal, September-October [1791?]
“Sep. 6. Th. Dine at Holcroft’s avec Noel et le cousin de Danton, Merget.
“Oct 14. Su. Dine at Holcroft’s with Crosdil: adv.”—advenæ—“Merget, Danton junr et
Pinard.
“Oct. 21. Su. Dine at Holcroft’s with Major Waller,
Merget and
Recordat; History of Danton.”
John Crosdill (1751 c.-1825)
English cellist and music teacher in London.
Georges-Jacques Danton (1759-1794)
French revolutionary leader who was guillotined after his break with Robespierre.
Thomas Holcroft (1745-1809)
English playwright and novelist; a friend of William Godwin indicted for treason in 1794;
author of
The Road to Ruin (1792). His
Memoirs (1816) were completed by William Hazlitt.
Georges Nicholas Mergez (1772-1846)
French adjudant commandant ennobled in 1810; he married Sophie Cole, daughter of Thomas
Holcroft, and lived in London in his later years.
François Joseph Michel Noël (1755-1841)
Professor of Belles Lettres at the University of Paris who in 1792 was an envoy and spy
in Great Britain where he sought to establish a newspaper favorable to the
Revolution.
