William Godwin the Younger

Godwin was the only son of William Godwin the elder, by his second wife, Mary Jane formerly Clairmont. His elder half-siblings and step-siblings included Charles Clairmont, Claire Clairmont, Fanny Imlay, and Mary Shelley. He was sent as a day boy to Charterhouse School at the age of eight; then, in 1814, to the school of the younger Dr. Burney at Greenwich; in 1818 to a commercial school at Woodford, Essex; and in 1819 to a mathematical school under Peter Nicholson. In 1820 his father tried to introduce him into Maudslay's engineering establishment at Lambeth, and afterwards to apprentice him to Nash the architect. ==Career as writer==

The boy was wayward and restless, but in 1823 surprised his father by producing some literary essays, which were printed in the Weekly Examiner; and in the same year he became a reporter for the Morning Chronicle, a position which he retained till his death. He wrote occasional articles, one of which, The Executioner, was published in ''Blackwood's Magazine'', and he founded a weekly Shakespeare club called "The Mulberries". His elder sister Claire explained to her friend Jane Williams: But in our family, if you cannot write an epic or novel, that by its originality knocks all other novels on the head, you are a despicable creature, not worth acknowledging. ==Later life==

He died of cholera on 8 September 1832, during a global pandemic of the disease, leaving a widow but no children. He left a novel, Transfusion, somewhat in the vein of his father's Caleb Williams. It was published in three volumes in 1835, with a memoir prefixed by his father. ==Family tree==