• Name: Reveley, Maria (Gisborne née James)
• Gender: Female
• Birth Date: 1770
• Death Date: April  1836

In the 1796 diary list Godwin notes meeting M Reveley first in 1793, which suggests strongly that the Reveleys before that date are Maria Reveley's first husband William (d.1799), who was independently a friend of Godwin and Holcroft. This suggests that we should follow Godwin's distinctions between Reveley and M Reveley and that we should regard the former as referring to William and the latter to Maria. This raises the common problem of what to do with Reveleys plural (when indeed this is a proper plural referring to both).

The DNB claims that Holcroft introduced Godwin to Maria Reveley on 21 September 1793, but the entry for that date is ambiguous as to whether Maria is present and makes no mention of Holcroft: 'tea Reveley’s , with Jardine, Sinclair + mrs Jennings.' If Holcroft played an intermediary role (which would be odd considering his and Godwin's friendship with William Reveley), the likely date would be 4 October 1793, when he enters 'Dine at Jennings’s , with Gerald, Holcroft + mrs Reveley'. However, this seems very unlikely to have been their first meeting given the entry for Reveleys (an unmistakeable plural given the context) on both 24 and 26 September 1793. Given the evidence for the extent to which Godwin and Maria Reveley quickly formed a close friendship it seems probable that meetings at Reveley's would have included Maria as well as William and we have coded them as such.

Godwin was very close to Maria Reveley. In 1795, his notes indicate that he meets her in Greenwich (where the diary entry does not mention her name, but simply enters Greenwich), and the following few entries are a little eccentric. When her husband died in July 1799, Godwin quickly proposed and was incomprehending when she refused him. There is then a hiatus in their friendship during which she marries John Gisbourne and goes with him to live in Italy. While there she becomes acquainted with Mary Shelley and reconnects with Godwin.

• MS. Abinger c. 22, fol. 112: 25 July 1799
• MS. Abinger c. 22, fols. 119-20: 25 Aug. 1799
• MS. Abinger c. 22, fols. 117-18: [18 Aug. 1799]
• MS. Abinger c. 17, fols. 92-4: [1799]
• MS. Abinger c. 55, fols. 52-5: [25] [July] [1799]
• MS. Abinger c. 55, fols. 56-7: 25 Aug. 1799 [
• DNB
• St Clair, p. 154-6.

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

• Name: Gisborne, John
• Gender: Male
• Birth Date:

John Gisbourne married Maria Reveley in May 1800. According to her DNB entry, he dies 1835/6.

There must some doubt over the identification of the early entries as there are references to Gisborne in the diary before he marries Reveley (one each year in 1795, 1797, 1798, and 1799). There is also a reference to Mrs Gisborne's on 4 July 1797 . The 1799 reference is to Gisbourne and MR, but the two previous entries are to Gisbournes. It is possible this refers to Gisborne and a brother, but it is Godwin's usual way of referring to husbands and wives; which suggests that the three early references are to another Gisborne. These early entries are, however, the only ones in doubt.

There is no reference in the biographies to Godwin knowing Gisborne before he secretively married Maria, but there is no reason why Godwin might not have known him.

• MS. Abinger c. 66, fols. 42-3: May 1818
• MS. Abinger d. 19, fols. 1-87: 1818-22
• MS. Abinger d. 20, fols. 1-46: 1818-1822
• MS. Abinger c. 66, fol. 69: 9 February 1820
• MS. Abinger c. 75, fols. 49-5: 19 March 1820
• MS. Abinger c. 78, fols. 107-8:30 June 1820
• MS. Abinger c. 75, fols. 51-2: 11 October 1820
• MS. Abinger c. 78, fol. 109: 11 October 1820
• MS. Abinger c. 77, fols. 40r-v: 10 April 1821
• MS. Abinger c. 67, fol. 1: 13 June 1821
• MS. Abinger c. 67, fols. 21-2: 11 January 1822
• MS. Abinger c. 67, fols. 25-6: 19 February 1822
• MS. Abinger c. 78, fol. 103: 12 January 1822
• MS. Abinger c. 78, fols. 104-6: 18 June 1822
• MS. Abinger d. 23, fols. 1-22: 1823, 1824-5
• MS. Abinger d. 24, fols. 1-22: 1823, 1824, 1825
• MS. Abinger d. 22, fols. i-ii, 1-24: 1825, 1832
• MS. Abinger d. 25, fols. 1-22: 1826
• MS. Abinger d. 1, fols. 1-47: 1827
• MS. Abinger d. 2, fols. 1-46: 1827
• MS. Abinger d. 3, fols. 1-47: 1827, 1828
• MS. Abinger e. 34, fols. 1-22: 1827
• MS. Abinger e. 35, fols. 1-33: 1827, 1828
• MS. Abinger d. 4, fols. 1-53: 1827-8
• MS. Abinger d. 5, fols. 1-50: 1828
• MS. Abinger e. 36, fols. 1-36: 1828
• MS. Abinger e. 37, fols. 1-36: 1828, 1830
• MS. Abinger d. 6, fols. 1-83: 1828
• MS. Abinger e. 40, fols. 1-78: 1828-9
• MS. Abinger d. 7, fols. 1-49: 1829
• MS. Abinger e. 38, fols. 1-22: 1829, 1824, 1825
• MS. Abinger e. 39, fols. 1-48: 1829
• MS. Abinger e. 41, fols. 1-48: 1829-30
• MS. Abinger e. 42, fols. 1-48: 1830
• MS. Abinger e. 43, fols. 1-48: 1830
• MS. Abinger e. 44, fols. 1-48: 1830
• MS. Abinger d. 8, fols. 1-49: 1829
• MS. Abinger d. 9, fols. 1-40: 1830
• MS. Abinger d. 10, fols. 1-22: 1831-2
• MS. Abinger d. 11, fols. 1-22: 1830
• MS. Abinger d. 12, fols. 1-22: 1830
• MS. Abinger d. 13, fols. 1-20: 1830
• MS. Abinger d. 14, fols. 1-22: 1830
• MS. Abinger d. 15, fols. 1-22: 1830, 1831-2
• MS. Abinger e. 45, fols. 1-35: 1831
• MS. Abinger e. 46, fols, 1-34: 1831
• MS. Abinger e. 47, fols. 1-34: 1831
• MS. Abinger d. 16, fols. 1-22: 1832
• MS. Abinger d. 17, fols. 1-32: 1832
• MS. Abinger d. 18, fols. 1-21: 1826, 1832
• MS. Abinger e. 55, fols. 1-16: 1827
• MS. Abinger e. 56, fols. 1-20: 1827
• MS. Abinger e. 57, fols, 1-16: 1828
• MS. Abinger e. 58, fols. 1-21: 1828
• MS. Abinger e. 59, fols. 1-10: 1828
• MS. Abinger e. 60, fols. 1-16: 1828
• MS. Abinger e. 61, fols. 1-13: 1828
• MS. Abinger e. 62, fols. 1-76: 1829
• MS. Abinger e. 63, fols. 1-26: 1831
• MS. Abinger e. 67, fols. 1-22: not dated
• MS. Abinger e. 68, fols. 1-19: not dated
• MS. Abinger d. 21, fols. 1-23: not dated
• MS. Abinger e. 54, fols. 1-46: not dated
• DNB

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