Godwin, Harriet.

Submitted by edpope on

1,2,1796 &c

For Harriet Godwin's baptism see Godwin, Joseph.
All entries currently under Harriet Godwin on GD website apart from those that belonged to her mother which I have noted under Godwin, Mary. Plus 26.2.1804 "letter to Ht" currently coded as Holcroft, clearly meant Harriet in the context, and 20.8.1821 "adv Ht West" was very probably the same person, as will appear below.
Event tag 29.2.1804 "affidavit before Judge Grose" (Nat Arch KB1/32/4 f107) this affidavit can be seen at Kew and explains the whole story of Godwin's visit to Lewes from 23.2.1804 to 27.2.1804. It was signed by both William and Joseph Godwin and made it clear that they went to Lewes together. Joseph had met Thomas West two years before. He first appeared in the diary 10.12.1801. He told Joseph he was interested in Harriet for a wife. However in June 1803 he married another woman, whose name according to the affidavit they could not discover (though the diary suggests they had by then found out or nearly so). In fact Thomas West Esq of Sloane Street had married Miss Lucy Dallas of Upper Fitzroy Street on 13.6.1803 by licence at St Luke's Chelsea, as announced in the Morning Post of 15.6.1803 and also in the Gentleman's Magazine. She was the sister of Sir George Dallas, created baronet in 1798 and Robert Dallas, a barrister famous for his defence of Warren Hastings. She was 35 to West's 30 and Harriet's 17, and on 14.12.1803, it was announced in the papers and the Gents Mag, a son was born at Mrs Dallas's in Upper Fitzroy Street to Mrs Thomas West, (six months after the wedding). I couldn't find a baptism for this child and he may have died before baptism or been taken away to rural obscurity once West deserted his wife.Then, according to the Godwins' affidavit, on 17.1.1804 Harriet Godwin ran off with Thomas West to Lewes, where he was barrackmaster for the Brighton barracks. Godwin and Joseph went to Lewes but West refused to see them, until they got Lord Craven, the colonel of the regiment stationed at Brighton, to summon him, even then he would not let them see Harriet. Justice Grose granted Habeas Corpus to have Harriet Godwin before Lord Ellenborough immediately. Godwin then wrote to Craven three times before receiving a reply on 27.3.1804 (Bodleian Abinger c.8 f59-60). Craven apologised for the delay saying he had been contacting West's superior the acting Barrack Master General Col Stapleton, and said that West might lose his position as barrackmaster, partly because of his conduct (i.e. his marital affairs) but anyway because he was suspected of irregularities in accounting for supplies. This was just at the time when General Oliver de Lancey had been relieved of his post as Barrack Master General due to large sums unaccounted for. Given that Craven himself kept a 15 year old mistress called Harriet (Harriette Wilson) in Brighton just 2 years before and could have colluded in the embezzlement or negligence himself, the graciousness of his letter to Godwin could be seen as hypocrisy. On 13.3.1804 Godwin went with his wife to meet Mrs West and her mother Mrs Dallas. However the upshot of it all seems to have been that Harriet Godwin continued to live with Thomas West. On 20.8.1821 when Godwin was visiting his brother Joseph in the Fleet prison, he noted "adv Ht West". She was probably the Harriet West who gave birth to a son Edward on 1.2.1805 baptised at St Luke Old Street on 2.8.1807 son of Thomas & Harriet West, and went on to have six more children with him, dying probably in childbirth and being buried at St Pancras 6.4.1823 from 34 Bayham Street. This is deducible from their baptism records and the will of Thomas West of Hounslow (Nat Arch PROB11/1945) which names the children and one other born in 1825 daughter of Thomas & Sarah West. Lucy West outlived her husband by a few months and also left a will (Nat Arch PROB11/1953), her son by Thomas West probably died in infancy. At John Godwin's funeral on 22.12.1805 Godwin noted Joseph's married daughter Bailey, and his 3 children, so the one missing from five is most likely Harriet of whom the family may still have been ashamed. Ann Godwin's letter of 27.4.1803 (Abinger c.8 f20) states "I fear Harriet is through pride & indulgence going the high way to ruin herself, if not her father too. She had learnt a business by which many young people get their living.....persuade her to brake off ye acquaintance and apply to work till she gets ye offer of an honest man to marry" which suggests that Harriet had already been accepting West's 'protection' before he married Lucy Dallas. In December 1804 (Abinger c.8 f92) Ann Godwin wrote "I have such naughty granddaughters" but I have no evidence of Harriet's sisters getting involved in similar events.