(born March 3, 1756, Wisbech, Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, Eng.—died April 7, 1836, London) British writer. He became a Presbyterian minister but soon lost his faith.
His Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) captivated Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Robert Southey, and Percy B. Shelley (who was to become his son-in-law), condemning the institution of marriage, among other things. The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794) was his masterpiece. He married Mary Wollstonecraft in 1797, but she died soon after the birth of their daughter, Mary (&see; Mary Shelley), conceived before their marriage.
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