Clara "Claire" Mary Jane Clairmont 1798-1879

On 27th April 1798 Clara "Claire" Mary Jane Clairmont was born illegitimately to John Lethbridge 1st Baronet [aged 52] and Mary Jane de Vial [aged 30] at Brislington, Bristol.

On 21st December 1801 William Godwin [aged 45] and [her mother] Mary Jane de Vial [aged 33] were married. She was pregnant at the time; the second marriage of his precipitated by pregnancy. The child died young.

1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. The upshot came on the 28th of July [1814], when Shelley [aged 21] aided Mary [aged 16] [Mary Godwin aka Shelley] to elope from her father's house, Claire Clairmont [aged 16] deciding to accompany them. They crossed to Calais, and proceeded across France into Switzerland. Godwin [aged 58] and his wife were greatly incensed. Though he and Mary Wollstonecraft had entertained and avowed bold opinions regarding the marriage-bond, similar to Shelley's own, and had in their time acted upon these opinions, it is not clearly made out that Mary Godwin had ever been encouraged by paternal influence to think or do the like. Shelley and she chose to act upon their own likings and responsibility - he disregarding any claim which Harriet had upon him, and Mary setting at nought her father's authority. Both were prepared to ignore the law of the land and the rules of society. The three young people returned to London in September.

In 1815 [her father] John Lethbridge 1st Baronet [aged 69] died. His son [her half-brother] Thomas [aged 36] succeeded 2nd Baronet Lethbridge of Westaway House in Devon and Winkley Court in Somerset. He was buried at Church of St Mary the Virgin, Pilton [Map] where there is a ledger stone inscribed as follows:

Here lyeth ye body of Phillip Bowchier, Gent., buried ye 3d day of Agust 1687 aged 64 years. Here also layeth the body of Agnes late wife of Phillip Bowchier, Gent., who departed this life ye 25th day of Nobr 1698 aged 66. Here lyes also buryed the body of Thomas Lethbridge, Gent., son of Thomas Lethbridge of Clement's Inne, Gent., a younger son of Christopher Lethbridge of Westaway, Esq., by Margaret his wife daughter of the above named Philip Bowchier. Obt 10th Augst 1744 aetatis 20"

1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. In May 1816 the pair [Bysshe Shelley 1st Baronet and Mary Godwin aka Shelley [aged 18]] left England for Switzerland, together with Miss Clairmont [aged 18], and their own infant son William. They went straight to Sécheron, near Geneva; Byron [aged 28], whose separation from his wife had just then taken place, arrived there immediately afterwards. A great deal of controversy has arisen as to the motives and incidents of this foreign sojourn. The clear fact is that Miss Clairmont, who had a fine voice and some inclination for the stage, had seen Byron, as connected with the management of Drury Lane theatre, early in the year, and an amorous intrigue had begun between them in London. Prima facie it seems quite reasonable to suppose that she had explained the facts to Shelley or to Mary, or to both, and had induced them to convoy her to the society of Byron abroad; were this finally established as the fact, it would show no inconsistency of conduct, or breach of his own code of sexual morals, on Shelley's part. On the other hand, documentary evidence exists showing that Mary was totally ignorant of the amour shortly before they went abroad. Whether or not they knew of it while they and Claire were in daily intercourse with Byron, and housed close by him on the shore of the Lake of Geneva, may be left unargued. The three returned to London in September 1816, Byron remaining abroad; and in January 1817 Miss Clairmont gave birth to his daughter named [her illegitimate daughter] Allegra.

On 12th January 1817 [her illegitimate daughter] Allegra Byron was born illegitimately to George "Lord Byron" 6th Baron Byron [aged 28] and Clara "Claire" Mary Jane Clairmont [aged 18].

1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. In 1818 the Shelleys [Percy Bysshe Shelley [aged 25] and Mary Godwin aka Shelley [aged 20]] - always nearly with Miss Clairmont [aged 19] in their company - were in Milan, Leghorn, the Bagni di Lucca, Venice and its neighbourhood, Rome, and Naples; in 1819 in Rome, the vicinity of Leghorn, and Florence (both their infants were now dead, but a third was born late in 1819, Percy Florence Shelly, who in 1844 inherited the baronetcy); in 1820 in Pisa the Bagni di Pisa (or di San Giuliano), and Leghorn; in 1821 in Pisa and with Byron in Ravenna; in 1822 in Pisa and on the Bay of Spezia, between Lerici and Sari Terenzio. The incidents of this period are but few, and of no great importance apart from their bearing upon the poet's writings. In Leghorn he knew Mr and Mrs Gisborne, the latter a once intimate friend of Godwin; she taught Shelley Spanish, and he was eager to promote a project for a steamer to be built by her son by a former marriage, the engineer Henry Reveley; it would have been the first steamer to navigate the Gulf of Lyons.

1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. This is the last incident of marked importance in the perturbed career of Shelley [aged 25]; the rest relates to the history of his mind, the poems which he produced and published, and his changes of locality in travelling. The first ensuing poem was The Revolt of Islam, referred to near the close of this article. In March 1818, after an illness which he regarded (rightly or wrongly) as a dangerous pulmonary attack, Shelley, with his wife, their two infants William and Clara, and Miss Clairmont [aged 19] and her baby Allegra, went off to Italy, where the short remainder of his life was passed. Allegra was soon sent on to Venice, to her father, who, ever since parting from Miss Clairmont in Switzerland, showed a callous and unfeeling determination to see and know no more about her.

On 20th April 1822 [her illegitimate daughter] Allegra Byron [aged 5] died.

On 17th June 1841 [her mother] Mary Jane de Vial [aged 73] died.

On 19th March 1879 Clara "Claire" Mary Jane Clairmont [aged 80] died.

1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. The speculative sage whom Shelley especially reverenced was William Godwin, the author of Political Justice and of the romance Caleb Williams; in 1796 he had married Mary Wollstonecraft, authoress of The Rights of Woman, who died shortly after giving birth, on the 30th of August 1797, to a daughter Mary. With Godwin Shelley had opened a volunteered correspondence late in 1811, and he had known him personally since the winter which closed 1812. Godwin was then a bookseller, living with his second wife, who had been a Mrs Clairmont; there were four other inmates of the household, two of whom call for some mention here - Fanny Wollstonecraft, the daughter of the authoress and Mr Imlay, and Claire (Clara Mary Jane), the daughter of Mrs Clairmont. Fanny committed suicide in October 1816, being, according to some accounts which remain unverified, hopelessly in love with Shelley; Claire was closely associated with all his subsequent career.