A Shelley Chronology

Abstract

1792 (4 August) Percy Bysshe Shelley is born at Field Place, Warnham (two and a half miles north of Horsham), in the county of Sussex, the son of Timothy Shelley* and of his wife, Elizabeth, née Pilfold, also of Sussex. His other brothers and sisters are: Elizabeth, Hellen (lived four months), Mary, Hellen, Margaret and John. One of the poef s grandfathers, Bysshe Shelley* (born in America), became a great Whig landowner, gained the favour of the Duke of Norfolk and markedly increased the family fortunes and social standing by two profitable elopements. But PBS was born into an age clouded by struggles with revolutionary France and by social-political-economic demands for change at home. The British government, fearful of sedition and treason, relentlessly persecuted radicals, newspaper editors, trade union supporters, advocates of reform and adherents to religious nonconformity. In sum, an old-established social order was painfully evolving into a disruptive and disturbed society seeking to find its way in a maelstrom of baffling new ideas and concepts. Much of this is reflected in the writings and judicial activities of the time. 1792 also sees the publication of Mary Wollstonecraff s Vindication of the Rights of Woman, of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man (Part I is already in print) as well as the formation of the London Corresponding Society and similar groups enabling workers to discuss their social and economic problems.