Percy Shelley his life and work. Plan: Introduction 3

Shelley's remains
When Shelley's body was cremated on the beach, his presumed heart resisted burning and was retrieved by Trelawny.^[136] The heart was possibly calcified from an earlier tubercular infection, or was perhaps his liver. Trelawny gave the scorched organ to Hunt, who preserved it in spirits of wine and refused to hand it over to Mary.^[137] He finally relented and the heart was eventually buried either at St Peter's Church, Bournemouth or in Christchurch Priory.^[138][139] Hunt also retrieved a piece of Shelley's jawbone which, in 1913, was given to the Shelley-Keats Memorial in Rome.^[136]
Family history
Shelley's paternal grandfather was Bysshe Shelley (21 June 1731 – 6 January 1815), who, in 1806, became Sir Bysshe Shelley, First Baronet of Castle Goring.^[140] On Sir Bysshe's death in 1815, Shelley's father inherited the baronetcy, becoming Sir Timothy Shelley.^[141]
Shelley was the eldest of several legitimate children. Bieri argues that Shelley had an older illegitimate brother but, if he existed, little is known of him.^[142] His younger siblings were: John (1806–1866), Margaret (1801–1887), Hellen (1799–1885), Mary (1797–1884), Hellen (1796–1796, died in infancy) and Elizabeth (1794–1831).^[143]
Shelley had two children by his first wife Harriet: Eliza Ianthe Shelley (1813–1876) and Charles Bysshe Shelley (1814–1826).^[144] He had four children by his second wife Mary: an unnamed daughter born in 1815 who only survived ten days; William Shelley (1816–1819); Clara Everina Shelley (1817–1818); and Percy Florence Shelley (1819–1889).^[145] Shelley also declared himself to be the father of Elena Adelaide Shelley (1818–1820), who might have been an illegitimate or adopted daughter.^[146] His son Percy Florence became the Third Baronet of Castle Goring in 1844, following the death of Sir Timothy Shelley.^[147]


Ancestry