Mary Wollstonecraft - Help with details on this family

Started by Erica Howton on Friday, May 24, 2019
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5/24/2019 at 11:56 AM

Particularly the family of William Godwin

Was Anne Godwin the daughter of Nicholas Hull of the Merchant Navy?

Tagging Private User for insight / ideas, others
Invited also.

It is John Camera asking; he is doing “research of the Hull, Godwin and Wollstonecraft families for a book project that, in part, traces their influence upon the social, cultural and legal status of women in the 18th and 19th centuries.”

5/24/2019 at 2:45 PM

Thank you Erica! Very kind of you. Hoping one or more Curators and Genies can offer clues/

5/24/2019 at 3:10 PM

I’m playing with a site for Godwin’s diary which may give more names and clues.

Searching Hull results:

Name: Godwin, Hull (Philip)
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 13 March 1765
Occupation: farmer

acquaintances returns:

http://godwindiary.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/people/GOD03.html#GOD03-acquai...

Godwin, (Mrs Philip Hull Godwin) 1
Godwin, Ann 1
Godwin, Nathaniel 1

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5/24/2019 at 3:11 PM

http://godwindiary.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/people/GOD03.html#GOD03-notes

Philip 'Hull' Godwin was one of Godwin's older brothers. The initials P G, P H G, and Hull Godwin have been all coded as him. The pattern of their contact is confirmed by other information we have (from Godwin's biographers), that Hull lived in Norfolk and raised his family there. Most of the entries for Hull are write to and in 1805 this seems to change from Hull G to PHG, but these entries are also mainly write to - and there's no reason to think that Godwin is doing anything other than changing the initials by which he refers to his brother. On one occasion, Godwin refers to Hull as HG (4 Sep 1805), a set of initials he usually uses for his sister, Hannah.

There are also references to PG in the diary. This seems to be a different person, whom Godwin sees in London, often in the company of Hannah. It is possible that this is the child of one of Godwin's brothers or sisters, or a cousin. But the evidence in the diary suggests that Godwin is intending to denote someone other than Hull Godwin when using the initials PG.

5/24/2019 at 3:59 PM

Anne (Hull) Godwin’s father was Richard Hull. I found her burial record and “may” have found her baptism record: if it’s the right one, her mother was Ann.

Philp, Mark, "William Godwin", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2017/entries/godwin/&gt;.

5/26/2019 at 6:23 PM

Thank you Erica! I looked at Anne (as different from Ann) but thought the dates were wrong. It could be that Anne was the mother of Ann who married John? Richard looks right as John Father. In his biography of William, Peter Marchall writes John moved his family [from? (Norfolk?)] to Wisbech, met Ann (or Anne) Hull, married her there (date unknown) and they resided in Wisbech. (I'm searching for where in Wisbech they lived--what church John was the minister of (there is a Wisbech St. Mary's, 2 Baptist Churches but he was a Calvinist), a Parish Church (possible), a Congregational Church, a Chapel Road on the North (left) bank, a Wesleyan Church--oh dear

I remember being on a panel at an MLA conference in Philadelphia where we discussed doing research--the question was "when do you stop?" Everybody laughed.

5/26/2019 at 6:25 PM

The answer given, with regret, was that at some point you just have to stop and move on.
You are terrific Erica.

5/26/2019 at 6:40 PM

Can you gain better access than I can to the work of Mark Philp?

I “like” this Richard Hull & Anne Roberts as Anne’s parents due to location, he’s baptized at St Mary Lambeth, and Wikipedia tells me it was a maritime area:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambeth

I am intrigued by the reference of him as a “wealthy merchant in the Baltic trade ...”. That implies a level of worldliness that’s quite a contrast to a Calvinist minister, and a tension in upbringing that could result in .... a renowned philosopher & feminist.

5/26/2019 at 6:59 PM

Another set of parents for Ann Hull on offer here:

https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Unknown_Swalwell_%281%29

We know that Richard Hull had a brother Nicholas “who squandered the family wealth” so I’ll add him and see if more pops up that way.

What were the Dissenting academies where the Godwin’s got their education?

5/26/2019 at 7:08 PM

Ahhh ... better parents.

Priscilla Hull
in the England, Select Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991
Name: Priscilla Hull
Gender: Female
Marital status: Widowed
Burial Date: 14 Jun 1762
Burial Place: Wisbech, St. Peter, Cambridge, England
FHL Film Number: 1040587
Source Information
Ancestry.com. England, Select Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
Original data: England Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013

5/27/2019 at 11:42 AM

Thanks again. Love this.

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