William Godwin the Younger

Who was William Godwin the Younger?

William Godwin the Younger was an English reporter and author.

Godwin was the only son of William Godwin the elder, by his second wife, Mary Jane formerly Clairmont. 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.

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".

He died of cholera on 8 September 1832, 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 3 volumes in 1835, with a memoir prefixed by his father.