Judith Godwin (correspondent)
{{Infobox person
| name = Judith Godwin
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| birth_place = Wales
| death_date = 25 January 1746
| death_place = Watford, England
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| known_for = Correspondent of Howel Harris
| education =
| spouse = Samuel Jones
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| nationality = Welsh
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Judith Godwin (died 25 January 1746) was a noted correspondent of Howel Harris and ancestor of Mary Shelley.
Life
Godwin was born in Radnorshire in Wales. Her name was Weaver and it is thought that she was related to a Puritan minister at Radnor named John Weaver. She married the controversial academic Samuel Jones.{{Cite web |title=JONES, SAMUEL ([ 1681? ]- 1719), Dissenting Academy tutor {{!}} Dictionary of Welsh Biography |url=https://biography.wales/article/s-JONE-SAM-1681 |access-date=2022-10-08 |website=biography.wales}} He had founded an academy at Tewkesbury in 1713 which faced difficulties and he had turned to drink.The autobiography of Thomas Secker, archbishop of Canterbury, ed. J. S. Macauley and R. W. Greaves (1988), pp. 3–4 Jones's house had been attacked by rioters in 1714, the day of the coronation of George I.'An account of the dissenting academies from the Restoration of Charles the Second', Doctor Williams's Library, MS 24.59, pp. 25–6, 60–62 Jones married Godwin shortly before his death at Tewkesbury on 11 October 1719 aged thirty-seven.
Godwin was a noted correspondent who later married Edward Godwin, her husband's former student, in 1721.{{Cite web |title=GODWIN, JUDITH (died 1746), one of Howel Harris's correspondents {{!}} Dictionary of Welsh Biography |url=https://biography.wales/article/s-GODW-JUD-1746 |access-date=2022-10-08 |website=biography.wales}} She held non-conformist views and she was described as "quasi-Methodist". Her friends included Vavasor Griffiths, Howel Harris and Lewis Rees who were all independent ministers. Howel Harris was the religious reformer and they had a long friendship during which they exchanged over 40 letters.
Godwin died in Watford, Hertfordshire, on 25 January 1746.
Legacy
Edward and Judith Godwin were the parents of Edward who was born in 1722 and John Godwin the following year. John was an Independent minister who became the father of radical philosopher and theologian William Godwin, husband and biographer of the philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft. They were the parents of the writer Mary Shelley (and Judith was her grandmother).
References
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Category:18th-century Welsh women writers
Category:18th-century British letter writers
Category:Year of birth missing
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