Lee, Sophia, Harriet & Anne

Submitted by edpope on

call on H & A Lee 6.3.1798 (in Bath) / 8.3.1798 call on S & H Lee (in Bath) / 9.3.1798 tea miss Lee's with Lefanus, Thompson & Losh (in Bath) / 13.6.1798 call on Lees (in Bath) / (2.6.1798 Abinger c4 f28 Godwin to H Lee) / (4.6.1798 Abinger c4 f29-30 Godwin to H Lee) / 6.61798 call on H Lee (in Bath) / 8.6.1798 again / 9.6.1798 Conference (in Bath) / 12.6.1798 Letter / (16.6.1798 Abinger c4 f31-2 H Lee to Godwin) / 25.6.1798 Chez elle / 26.6.1798 chez elle:....Conference / 27.6.1798 call on (not in).....S Laney calls. Letter on Religion / 28.6.1798 Water, with H & A / 29.6.1798 Walk w. H ..... Laney calls / 1.7.1798 call on H L ......Conference / 3.7.1798 conference / 4.7.1798 Letter / 5.7.1798 call on Lees / 7.7.1798 Opera, w. Lees / 9.7.1798 chez elle / 10.7.1798 Letter / 11.7.1798 Theatre, w. Lees / 13.7.1798 call on H Lee / 14.7.1798 Water, w. H & A  / 16.7.1798 call on Lee / 18.7.1798 again / 20.7.1798 Letter. Call on Lee / 22.7.1798 Call on Lee........Leaves town / (31.7.1798 Abinger c4 f35-6 H Lee to Godwin) / (7.8.1798 Abinger c4 f37-8 H Lee to Godwin) / (Abinger c4 f66-7 & f68-9 H Lee to Godwin undated) / 7.1.1799 call on H Lee / 10.1.1799 H & A Lee at C(harlotte) Smith's / 12.1.1799 teatre, adv Lees / 15.1.1799 tea, H Lee's / 20.1.1799 again / 1.6.1700 write to H Lee / (2.6.1799 Abinger c4 f115-6 H & S Lee to Godwin) / 5.6.1799 write to S Lee / (7.12.1799 Abinger c5 f33-4 S Lee to Godwin) / (8.12.1799 Abinger c5 f35-6 H Lee to Godwin)

Anna Lee hanged herself 23.10.1805 (see Highfill, Burnim & Langhans, John Lee)

Conference in the entries above may have referred to Charles Churchill's poem of that name, see my entry for Conference. The Letters of 12.6.1798, 27.6.1798, 10.7.1798 and 20.7.1798 seem to me to have referred to Godwin's letters to Harriet Lee, of which some undated drafts and fair copies are in Abinger c17 f69 to f87. (Abinger c17 f60-65 seem to predate Godwin's June visit to Bath). Religion (27.6.1798) was certainly a subject of more than one of the drafts. I have included the visits of (Miss S) Laney, see her entry, as they may have been related to Godwin's courtship of Miss Lee. A closer study of the letters between Godwin and Lee and of what he was reading (e.g Rousseau & Ovid) and writing in this period, might reveal further probable interpretations. The letters also show that Godwin was staying with the Jones's on his first (March) visit to Bath, and that Godwin believed Harriet Lee had stayed with or near to the Linleys when she visited London without seeing him that spring, and he expected she would travel there with "the two Emilys". I haven't identified the Emilys but they may have been pupils of the Lee sisters at their school at Belvidere House, Bath. The use of "chez elle" which Godwin had used in his relationship with Mary Wollstonecraft until she had moved in to his house shortly after their marriage has been thought (eg by St Clair) to have referred to fairly intimate trysts between Godwin and Lee, but Mark Philp suggeted they may have been visits to Mary Wollstonecraft's grave, (perhaps in order to 'consult her spirit' about his courtship of Harriet Lee?). For the one other anomalous use of "chez elle" see my entry for Mary (with no surname)