Westbrook, Harriet (1795–1816)

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Westbrook, Harriet (1795–1816)

Wife of Percy Shelley. Name variations: Harriet Shelley. Born Harriet Westbrook in 1795; drowned herself in Serpentine River, Nov 1816; dau. of a retired tavern keeper; m. Percy Bysshe Shelley (the poet), Aug 1811; children: daughter Ianthe Shelley (b. 1813); Charles Shelley (b. 1814).

Resisted husband's preference for threesomes; abandoned by Shelley, committed suicide when she discovered she was carrying the child of another man.

See also Women in World History.

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