Mary Jane Godwin

Mary Jane Godwin (née de Vial; pseudonymed Mary Jane Clairmont; 1768 – 17 June 1841) was an English author, publisher, and bookseller. She was the second wife of William Godwin and stepmother to Mary Shelley.

Early life alt=Black-and-white engraving showing London buildings in the background and carriages and people in the foreground. The Polygon (at left) in Somers Town, London, between Camden Town and St Pancras, where Mary Jane Clairmont and William Godwin were neighbours. Mary Jane de Vial was born in Exeter in 1768, probably the daughter of merchant Peter de Vial and his wife Mary (née Tremlett). (His sister Albertina Mariana married Robert Trefusis, 17th Baron Clinton; both baron and baroness died in 1797-98.) She said that the Swiss merchant had anglicised his name upon settling in England, and so she and her children used the surname Clairmont. It appears that he was indeed the father of her first child, Charles Gaulis Clairmont, but there is no evidence that they ever married. This discovery came through a trove of lawyers' letters, showing her making her case for child support payments. In 1799 and 1800 she was in debtors' prison in Ilchester.

By 1801, calling herself Mrs Clairmont, she was living in Somers Town, an area of London between St Pancras and Camden Town. Her neighbour at The Polygon, an early housing estate, was the philosopher and writer William Godwin, whose first wife Mary Wollstonecraft had died shortly after childbirth four years previously. He, like her, had two children to care for: Fanny Imlay and the young Mary Shelley.

Marriage to William Godwin

Mary Jane and William married on 21 December 1801; this marriage, like his first, was precipitated by the bride's pregnancy. She gave birth six months later to a son they named William, but the infant died. She conceived again soon afterwards, and went on to have another boy, to whom they gave the same name: William Godwin the Younger, born in 1803. For some years they lived in grace and favour accommodation within the Palace of Westminster, following his award of a sinecure position as Office Keeper and Yeoman Usher of the Receipt of the Exchequer.

The Juvenile Library Mary Jane Godwin played an active role in the literary and cultural society of the time. The shop specialised in literature for children, and also published Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb. ended up as Chair of English literature at Vienna University and taught sons of the royal family; news of his sudden death in 1849 distressed Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico. Mary eloped with Percy Shelley, the poet, and wrote Frankenstein. Claire accompanied them, had an affair with Lord Byron, and presented Mary Jane Godwin with her first grandchild, Allegra Byron. The little girl died aged five, but later grandchildren were Mary's only surviving child, Percy Florence Shelley, and the son and daughter of Charles.