Foresight of Faith.’ This work while in manuscript fell into the hands of Dr. William Twiss of Newbury in Berkshire, who promptly challenged the writings of Godwin. A warm dispute ensued between the two, in which, according to Samuel Clarke, ‘Dr. Twiss promptly whipped the old schoolmaster.’
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 51; Wood's Fasti, i. 316, 334, 366, 398, 489, ii. 18, 57; Dodd's Church Hist.; Dr. Samuel Clarke's Lives of Eminent Persons; Jennings's Jewish Antiquities, &c.]
GODWIN, WILLIAM, the younger (1803–1832), reporter, only son of William Godwin the elder, by his second wife, was born 28 March 1803. He was sent as a day boy to the Charterhouse at the age of eight; then (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 became reporter to 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 8 Sept. 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 vols. in 1835, with a memoir prefixed by his father.
[Memoir as above; C. K. Paul's William Godwin, ii. 90, 257, 276, 295, 321.]
GODWIN, WILLIAM, the elder (1756–1836), author of ‘Political Justice,’ son of John Godwin, was born 3 March 1756 at Wisbeach, Cambridgeshire, where his father, born 1723, was a dissenting minister. His mother's maiden name was Hull. He was the seventh of thirteen children (Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. i. 503, gives a few particulars about the family). He was physically puny, but intellectually precocious, and was brought up upon strict puritanical principles. His father moved in 1758 to Debenham, Suffolk. An Arian minority in his congregation opposed him, and about 1760 he settled finally at Guestwick in Norfolk; he never received above 60l. a year. William was sent to a dame school at Guestwick, and in 1764 to a school kept by Robert Akers at Hindolveston, in the neighbourhood. He used to steal secretly into the meeting-house to preach to a fellow-pupil, and became a promising student. In 1767 he was sent as a pupil to Samuel Newton, an independent minister at Norwich, of whose severity he afterwards complained. He had an attack of smallpox in 1768, having refused, from religious scruples, to be inoculated. He read Rollin's ‘Ancient History,’ and was influenced by his tutor's Wilkite politics and Sandemanian theology. In 1771 he became usher in his old school under Akers. His father died 12 Nov. 1772. In April 1773 he went to London with his mother, and, after being refused admission to Homerton Academy on suspicion of Sandemanian tendencies, entered the Hoxton Academy in 1773. Here he was under Kippis, who became a useful friend. He was ‘famous for calm and dispassionate discussion;’ he rose at five and went to bed at twelve, in order to have time for metaphysical inquiries, and, though a Calvinist in theology, formed the philosophical opinions as to materialism and necessity to which he adhered through life. He had arguments with Dr. Rees of the ‘Cyclopædia,’ then the head of the college. In 1777 he preached at Yarmouth and Lowestoft in the summer season, and in 1778, after an unsuccessful application at Christchurch, Hampshire, became minister at Ware in Hertfordshire. Here he came under the influence of Joseph Fawcet, a follower of Jonathan Edwards and a strong republican. In August 1779 Godwin moved to London, and in 1780 became minister at Stowmarket, Suffolk, where his faith in Christianity was shaken by a study of French philosophers, though he was for a time reconverted by Priestley's ‘Institutes.’ He fell out with his congregation in 1782, went to London, and began to try his hand at authorship. For the first half of 1783 he was again on trial as a minister at Beaconsfield, but finally settled to the profession of literature in the autumn. His ‘Life of Chatham’ was published in the spring of 1783, and he afterwards wrote pamphlets, articles, and novels. Murray employed him on the ‘English Review,’ and in translating Simon, lord Lovat's memoirs; but he had often to pawn his watch or books to procure a dinner. In 1785 he was appointed, through Kippis's introduction, to write the historical article in the ‘New Annual Register.’ He now dropped the title of ‘reverend,’ and henceforth saw little of his family, though to the end of her life his mother, a shrewd old lady, wrote occasional letters of bad spelling and grammar, full of religious advice and maternal affection.
