This and subsequent references concern Thomas Holcroft’s son William who ran away from home, heading for the continent. His intention must have been clear for Godwin and Holcroft set off in pursuit and tracked him to the Fame, a ship at Deal. Rather than face his father, the boy shot himself. Locke conjectures that Marshall’s earlier trips to Southampton may have been connected with previous episodes.

See Locke, pp. 31-2 and William Godwin, Tragical Consequences, or, A Disaster at Deal: being an unpublished letter of William Godwin dated Wednesday, November 18th, 1789, with remarks thereon by Edmund Blunden (London: Fytton Armstrong, 1931).