GODWIN, William. — Born at Wisbeach on 3 March 1756, died in London on 7 April 1836. A restless spirit, after studying at the Dissenting College of Hoxton, he was appointed pastor of the Dissenting congregation at Ware. Later he became a Socinian.
His principal work is *An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Political Justice* (London 1793), in which he sets forth the extreme formulation of an “anarchic” individualism and a rationalistic abstractionism ranging from opposition to every pedagogy linked to government to the view of property and the marital union as stifling “freedom” (Godwin was also a vehement opponent of the mechanism of military life, of military castes, and even of military secrecy). After the death of his wife and former friend (1797), Mary Wollstonecraft (author of *A Vindication of the Rights of Women* [1792], which advocated the thesis of co-education), Godwin had to overcome a profound crisis. Remarried, he became a celebrated editor of children’s books.