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Who was Mary Shelley? Writer. Date and Place of Birth: 30th August 1797, 29 The Polygon, Somers Town, London, England. Family Background: The daughter of the philosopher William Godwin and the women's reformer Mary Wollstonecraft. Her mother died after complications with her birth on 10th September 1797. Education: Local day school's in London and Miss Pertiman's boarding School, Ramsgate. Chronology: 1799: Samuel Taylor Coleridge comes to stay with her father and she hears a recital of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" for the first time. 1801: Her father remarries to Mrs. Mary Jane Clairemont. 1803: Anthony Carlisle visits her father and recounts experiments which had been done to the bodies of executed prisoners at Newgate. Electricity had been passed through the corpses to make them move. Also present were Humphrey Davy, Charles Lamb and S.T. Coleridge. 1806: Hides under the sofa to listen to Coleridge reciting "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner". 1807: Leaves the Polygon (and its close proximity to her mother's grave) for 41 Skinner Street where her father sets up as a bookseller. The house is near the abbatoirs for Fleet Street market as well as Newgate Prison. 1811: Sent to Ramsgate for her health. 1812: Her father takes her to a Coleridge recital where she sees Lord Byron in the audience. Sent to Broughty Ferry near Dundee in Scotland again for her health. 1814: (5th May) Meets Percy Bysshe Shelley for the first time at Skinner Street. (27th June). Makes love to Shelley in the graveyard at St. Pancras. (28th July) Leaves for France with Shelley and Jane Clairemont. Mary's family disown her. They all travel to Paris and then on to Basle and Lucerne in Switzerland, eventually returning to England with no money left. They take a series of lodgings in St. Pancras and Knightsbridge. 1815: (22nd February) Birth of her first child Clara who died on 6th March. Spend the summer in Torquay then Windsor. Claire Clairemont goes to stay in Shelley's cottage in Lynmouth, Devon and suspects she is pregnant. 1816: (24th January) Birth of her second child, christened William Godwin Shelley. Claire meets Byron. Mary, Claire, Shelley and Byron all decide to go to Switzerland. (May) They arrive in Geneva and lodge at the Hotel D'Angleterre. They then move on to the Maison Chapus near Colgny. John Polidori probably falls in love with Mary. Byron is now lodging separately at the Villa Diodati on the shores of Lake Geneva where the others make frequent visits. (15th June) Byron suggests a short horror story competition to pass the time away during a storm. Mary realises the vision of Frankenstein for the first time. (26th August) She writes out the first draft of Frankenstein, although she did not fully complete the story until 16th September. (September) Returns to England and stays at Bath at 5 Abbey Churchyard next to the Pump Rooms. Claire is now expecting Byron's baby. (9th October) Mary's stepsister Fanny commits suicide at the Mackworth Arms, Swansea. (December) Shelley's wife Harriet kills herself in the serpentine in London and is found to have been pregnant. 1817: Shelley seeks custody of his children Charles and Ianthe but fails. (13th January) Claire gives birth to a child called Alba. Mary and Shelley, now married move to Albion House Marlowe, Buckinghamshire. (2nd September) Gives birth to her third child Clara. 1818: (September ) Clara dies in Venice. 1819: (7th June) Second Child William died in Rome of malaria. (12th November) Fourth child Percy Florence is born in Florence. 1821: Mary and Shelley visit Byron at Ravenna. Byron visits them at Pisa. 1822: Trelawny arrives in Pisa. Death of Allegra on 20th April. Mary has near fatal miscarriage. Shelley sails to Leghorn to meet Leigh-Hunt. Sees Byron. Shelley is drowned on the return trip. 1823: (25th August) Arrives back in England and takes lodgings in Brunswick Square, London. A dramatisation by Richard Brinsley Peake of her book called the "Fate of Frankenstein" is performed at the Lyceum Theatre and English Opera House, London. She is rejected by Sir Timothy Shelley, Percy's father, who forbids her to publish any of Shelley's works to which she may hold copyright and refuses to give her any financial assistance. She is also rejected by London Society in general. Lives in a series of lodgings in North Holborn and Kentish Town, London. 1824: At Coram's Fields she begins transcribing Shelley's manuscripts and hopes, to get them published. 300 copies are produced but Sir Timothy bans their sale two months later. (9th July) Visits the home of Edward Knatchbull where the remains of Byron are being held three days prior to its funeral procession to Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire. Mary was writing the second Volume of the "Last Man". 1826: Assists Thomas Moore with his projected life of Byron. 1828: Contracts smallpox on a visit to Paris. 1829: Lodges at 33 Somerset street, London and begins talking to a wide group of literary acquaintances. 1833: Moves to Harrow village to be near her son Percy whilst he is at school. begins writing "Lodore" but breaks off to start "The Lives of the Italians" which was to take five years to research and write. She held a particular dislike for working at the King's Library of the British Museum. 1836: Moves back to London. (7th April) Her father Godwin dies. 1837: Begins the task of writing Godwin's life and editing his papers. 1839: Prepares texts and biographical notes for Edward Moxon's edition of Shelley's work for which she is paid £500 pounds. This enables her to take out a lease on a house in Putney. Sits for her portrait to Richard Rothwell which was to be exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition the following year. 1840: Lodges in Richmond before embarking on a tour of Switzerland and Italy with her son Percy and his friend Knox. First signs in Italy of menigioma, the disease which was later to kill her. 1843: Spends a month in Paris with stepsister Claire. Lodges in Putney on her return home to England. 1844: Sir Timothy Shelley dies leaving Field Place to Percy and Mary. The property was in a terrible state of repair and its costs as well as her husband's debts left her in despair. 1845: Buys 24 Chester Square, Belgravia. 1847: (Jan) Suffers a prolonged bout of illness. 1848: (22nd June) Son Percy marries Jane St. John the widow of Charles Robert St. John the younger son of Lord Bolingbroke. The three move back to Field Place and use Jane's money to restore it. Both women suffer from bad health do to the dampness of the house. 1849: Jane and Percy purchase Boscombe Lodge near Bournemouth hoping to restore Mary's health. 1850: Mary's health worsens and she is taken back to Chester Square in London. 1851: (23rd January) Mary suffers a series of fits and lapses into a coma. After her death Percy arranged for the bodies of her father Godwin and her mother Mary Wollstonecraft to be exhumed and reburied alongside Mary in Bournemouth. A small museum and shrine was created at the Boscombe house to Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Written Works: 1818: “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus”. 1819: “Mathilda”. 1823: “Valperga, or the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca”. 1826: “The Last Man”. 1830: “The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck.” 1832: “Prosperine, a Mythological Drama in Two Acts.” 1835: “Lodore”. 1837: “Falkner” Marriage: 30th December 1816 To Percy Bysshe Shelley at St. Mildred’s Church, Bread Street, London. Her father William Godwin and his wife attend. Places of Interest: DORSET: Boscombe House Museum. LONDON: British Museum Library. National Portrait Gallery. Date and Place of Death: 1st February 1851, Chester Square, London, England. Age at Death: 53. Site of Grave: St. Peter's Church, Bournemouth, England.