• Name: Dibbin, Henry
• Gender: Male
• Birth Date:
• Death Date: 6  January  1824
• Occupation: inn-keeper

Henry Dibbin was a friend of George Dyson. They appear together from 1791, and called on Godwin for conversation. Contacts peak 1797-1801, when he appears frequently with Dyson and Louisa Jones. It is highly likely that he was a childhood, or schoolboy fiend of Dyson.

It seems probable that he was an inn-keeper. In an undated letter to Godwin he wrote of being 'being conscious of the difference between us .... I wish to act under the correction of your superior knowledge', which could be read in terms of social class divide. On 10 March 1793 'Dyson and Dibbin call: advise the latter' could be read in conjunction with this letter. The Old Bailey Online has a case from May 1800 in which a Henry Dibbin has been robbed of twelve pieces of linen cloth. During the trial, Dibbin says 'I keep an Inn-yard; I am agent to a carrier, I live in Basing-lane'. However, in a letter to Godwin Dibbin gives his address as Blossoms Inn, Laurence Lane. British History Online shows that Basing Lane was absorbed into what is now Cannon Street and was thus right beside Laurence Lane so Dibbin may simply have moved premises. Thomas Pennant's Some Account of London (1813) refers to Blossoms Inn on Laurence Lane as a 'public-house of much antiquity, and which is still in great business as a carriers inn' (p. 552).

On 4 July 1801, Henry Dibbin and Louisa Jones were married at St Dionis Backchurch, London. The witnesses were George Dyson and Hannah Godwin. And on 7 August, the couple call on Godwin. Godwin was angry at their marriage and denied Louisa Jones/Dibbin all further access to the children. His relationship to Dibbin also seems to have cooled. The marriage played a part in cooling Godwin's relationship with his siser Hannah whom he saw as encouraging inappropriate liaisons.

The Gentleman's Magazine for 1824 records the death of a Henry Dibbin on 6 January 'of Basing-lane. His death has occasioned, in private society, a chasm that will not soon be filled; and the high value of his public character is too well known in the City of London, especially in the Common Council, of which he was one of the most upright, consistent, and efficient members, for Breadstreet Ward, for the last 12 years, to need any elaborate eulogy. In public and private life he was ever a candid, intelligent, and honest man.' If this is Godwin's friend, then he fails to record the death. However, on 17 January 1824 he does call on 'L Dibbin' (who has appeared a couple of times before) - so this is probably Henry Dibbin's widow (formerly Louisa Jones).

Another case from the Old Bailey Proceedings Online from 15 January 1829 indicates that L Dibbin was Louisa Dibbin and that they had a son, also Henry. This information, along with the diary and the correspondence of Louisa Jones together with what we now now of Dyson, demonstrates that it was Dibbin who married Godwin's housekeeper and not, as had been surmised by biographers, George Dyson. (See, however, the Dyson entry for the extent of Godwin and Arnot's misunderstanding of the relationship.

• MS. Abinger c. 14, fol. 85: not dated
• MS. Abinger c. 4, fols. 12-13: 6 April 1798
• MS. Abinger c. 22, fols. 188-9: 1798-9
• Gentleman's Magazine,1824
• The Old Bailey Proceedings Online; www.oldbaileyonline.org
• Mark Philp, Godwin’s Political Justice (London: Duckworth, 1986)
• Thomas Pennant, Some Account of London (London, 1813)

This table lists the people this person is most frequently noted with in the diary.