• Name: Shelley, Percy Bysshe
• Gender: Male
• Birth Date: 4  August  1792
• Death Date: 8  July  1822

Percy Shelley contacted Godwin in January 1812 having been an enthusiastic reader of Political Justice. The two men met in October and, as Godwin's financial position worsened, he increasingly looked to Shelley to save his fortunes. Shelley was then married to Harriet, who was also introduced to the Godwin household. Just as it seemed that Shelley might finally be in a position to rescue Godwin's finances by selling a post-obit bond in July 1814, he announced that he could give Godwin only half of the money raised. He also declared his love for Godwin's daughter Mary. Godwin was horrified, and still more distressed when the couple eloped taking Godwin's step-daughter Jane with them. There followed two years in which Godwin could hardly bear to communicate with his daughter and in which he refused to see Shelley, while bombarding him with letters asking for financial support. When Shelley's wife Harriet committed suicide (7 December 1816), Godwin was desperate for the couple to marry, and when they did on 30 December 1816, Godwin readmitted them to his house. Godwin's relationship with Shelley was contaminated from the start by the prospect that Shelley might solve Godwin's financial problems and throughout Shelley's life Godwin pressed him for money. After the Shelleys' departure for Italy in March 1818, Godwin became ever more demanding and desperate. For a time, Shelley intercepted his letters to Mary because of her precarious health.

In 1812-1813 we have assumed that meals at Shelley's include Harriet. The one caveat is that Shelley and Harriet become estranged in 1813 and Shelley was likely to have been in London on his own at points. The last entry where Harriet might be included with Shelley is 17 July 1813, 'Dine at Shelley's'.

See the discussion of the coding for Mary Shelley.

Various place names have been coded for Percy Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley when Godwin writes letters to Livorno, Lucca, Florence, Napoli during 1818-19.

There is also a 'Percy problem' in coding. There is a code for Joseph Clinton Robertson, pseud. Sholto Percy, but this identification is very tentative - we have no evidence for any relationship and it is also unusual for Godwin to refer to someone by their pseudonym. Moreover, the DNB suggests that Robertson did not achieve literary success until the 1820s and did not adopt the Sholto Percy pseudonym until he began writing The Percy Anecdotes in 1821 yet the majority of Godwin's refs to a 'Percy' come several years before this. In addition, there is both Reuben Percy and Sholto Percy, Reuben being a pseudonym for Thomas Byerley - and there seems no reason to privilege Sholto over Reuben. So the identification of this Percy is unclear. However, it is clear that there is a Percy who needs distinguishing from Shelley, for a detailed discussion of these see Percy.

From 1826 Percy entries have been consistently coded for Percy Shelley junr, who is eight in the November of that year. The evidence suggests that from this point on (around 100 references 1826-36) Godwin uses Percy to refer to his grandson. He appears with Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in a lot of entries and we know that on 27 March 1828, 'Percy to Slater' refers to Percy junr entering Edward Slater's Gentlemen's Academy, Church Street, Kensington. There are quite a lot of Percy entries dining alone with Godwin (at the Godwin's) but the majority of entries show a connection to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

• DNB.
• St Clair.
• Richard Holmes, Shelley: The Pursuit (London: Harper Perennial, 2005).

This table lists the people this person is most frequently noted with in the diary.

• Name: Shelley, Harriet (née Westbrook)
• Gender: Female
• Birth Date: 1795
• Death Date: 9  November  1816

See her husband's DNB entry, Percy Bysshe Shelley.> Godwin records her death on 9 November 1816: 'H S dies'.

• DNB.

This table lists the people this person is most frequently noted with in the diary.