Gisborne, Maria |
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BORN 1770, Constantinople - DIED 1836 REAL NAME James, Maria |
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Daughter of a merchant, born as Maria James. She grew up in the
East and married the young architect Willey Reveley in Rome
when she was only eighteen years old. They both worked for the
famous Jeremy Bentham and had a son, Henry. For a few days, Maria took care of little Mary, the daughter that Mary Wollstonecraft gave birth to shorty before her death. In 1800 she refused a proposal for marriage from the widower, William Godwin (Reveley had died in 1799). She married John Gisborne instead and they went to live in Italy in 1800. The young Mary became well known as Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein and it was in Italy that Maria and Mary met again in later years. During a visit to London in 1820 she kept a diary for the Shelleys. In 1820 Mary's husband Percy Bysshe Shelley published his "Letter to Maria Gisborne". Family • Son: Reveley, Henry Willey Related persons • has a connection with Godwin, William • has a connection with Shelley, Mary Sources • St Clair, William, The Godwins and the Shelleys, Faber and Faber, London, 1990 |