Godwin's step-children Fanny Imlay (who, according to St Clair, usually used the surname Godwin) and Charles Clairmont stayed overnight with Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley following the birth of her child born either very premature or conceived prior to her elopement with Percy Shelley. Shelley’s journal notes that Fanny stayed over, and that the Godwins were away from home, although the diary does not corroborate that, unless Shelley meant to indicate that they were out at the theatre that evening.