• Name: Robertson, Joseph Clinton (pseudonym Sholto Percy)
• Gender: Male
• Birth Date: 1788
• Death Date: 22  September  1852
• Occupation: journal editor
• Occupation: writer

This identification is doubtful, but there is an important issue about distinguishing the individual Percy from Godwin's son-in-law Percy Bysshe Shelley.

We currently have a tentative identification of Joseph Clinton Robertson, pseud. Sholto Percy). But there is no hard evidence for any relationship and it is unusual for Godwin to refer to anyone by their pseudonym. Moreover, the DNB suggests that Robertson didn't achieve literary success until the 1820s and didn't adopt the Sholto Percy pseudonym until he began writing The Percy Anecdotes in 1821 - yet the majority of Godwin's refs to a 'Percy' come several years before this. There was both Reuben and Sholto Percy, Reuben being a pseudonym for Thomas Byerley - and there seems no reason to privilege Sholto over Reuben.

There are nine refs to Percy when Shelley and Mary are in Marlow. Six of them fall within a fornight in May 1817 . It is possible that this is a period when Shelley is back in London, but it is very odd for G to refer to someone by two different names, even if the way the two names crop up side by side is uncanny. We have left the following coded for Sholto or Reuben Percy 12.5.1817 'Write to Shelley .... Percy calls na'
13.5.1817 'Call on .... Percy (with Ogilvie)'
14.5.1817 'Percy calls'
17.5.1817 'Percy calls'
21.5.1817 'Percy calls'
(23.5.1817 'Percy calls: Shelleys dine'
26.5.1817 'Percy calls .... Shelley departs'
(29.5.1817 'meet M and Percy'
4.7.1817 'Write to Shelley .... Percy calls'
17.1.1818 'Write to Shelley .... Percy calls'
28.1.1818 'Percy calls', has written to Shelley the prev day.
27.12.1821, 28.12.1821, 2.1.1822 Shelleys are in Italy so cannot be PBS.
9.1.1826 Percy dines - no basis for thinking this is P S junior
Although there is something striking about the overlap for those few weeks in 1817, it seems highly improbable that Godwin is using both Percy and Shelley to refer to the same person. Of particular note is that Shelley departs on 26 May 1817, but he meets Percy on 29 May, and MWS departs on 31 May. This suggests that Shelley has left and that MWS stays on a few days, and that the Percy has no connection with either.

1.1.1824, 31.1.1824 Percy jr only four years old so very unlikely to be him as both are 'Percy calls' From 1826 Percy has been consistently coded as Percy jr, who is seven this year. I think this is right and that we have good grounds for thinking that from this point on (around 100 refs 1826-36) Godwin uses Percy to refer to his grandson - for ex., appears with MWS in a lot of entries and we know that on 27.3.1828 'Percy to Slater' refs to Percy jr entering Edward Slater's Gentlemen's Academy, Church Street, Kensington. These entries refer to Percy jr . There are quite a lot of Percy entries dining alone with Godwin (at the Godwin's) but the majority of entries show a connection to Mary Wollstonecraft-Shelley. On that basis they should be coded for him, but not before 1826.

• DNB

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