William Godwin: his Friends and Contemporaries
Ch. VI. 1804-1806
Hannah Godwin to Hull Godwin, [October 1805?]
“Dear William,—I had a
letter from Hull yesterday. He says our
dear mother has taken a little more
notice of things lately, and seems to understand some things a little better,
but speaks very imperfectly and looks thin. She is extremely anxious about
their attending to religion. O that I had attended to her anxiety on this head
always! O that all my dear brothers would, ere it be too late, that we might
hereafter all meet together with her in that ![]()
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state of happiness and perfection which she will
assuredly ere long enjoy. How earnestly has she prayed, for how many years,
that she might hereafter say to God Almighty, ‘Here am I, and the
children that Thou hast given me.’ Molly
told me that before she was deprived of her senses, she would sometimes
scarcely speak for half a day, but sigh most deeply, and then break out in an
agony, ‘O Molly, Molly, what
will become of my children?’”
Ann Godwin [née Hull] (1723 c.-1809)
The daughter of the shipowner Richard Hull, she married the Rev. John Godwin and was the
mother of the writer William Godwin.
Philip Hull Godwin (1765-1852)
The younger brother of William Godwin; he was a farmer in East Bradenham, Norfolk.
William Godwin (1756-1836)
English novelist and political philosopher; author of
An Inquiry
concerning the Principles of Political Justice (1793) and
Caleb
Williams (1794); in 1797 he married Mary Wollstonecraft.
