Death
On 1 July 1822, Williams and Shelley, along with a friend, Daniel Roberts, and a young Cornish boatman, sailed Shelley's boat, Don Juan, to Leghorn. Shelley, Williams and the young Cornishman set sail back on 8 July, but the boat sank in a squall, and they were drowned. Their bodies washed ashore, and Williams was recognized by Trelawny by a boot and a scarf. The bodies were buried temporarily in the sand where they were discovered until Trelawny obtained permission to cremate them, whereupon they were exhumed, and Williams's body was burnt in Tuscany on 15 August. Williams's ashes were carried back to England by Jane, where eventually, she became the wife of another friend of Shelley, Thomas Jefferson Hogg. On her death his ashes were buried with her in Kensal Green Cemetery.
Whilst in Italy, Williams kept a brief journal, which has since provided another sidelight on the lives of Shelley, Byron and the ever-inventive Edward John Trelawny, who managed to make his brief acquaintance with two of the most talented and charismatic poets of his age into a career.
The closeness of the relationship between the Williamses and Shelleys is shown in many contemporary documents, including Williams's Journal, Mary Shelley's Journal, Trelawny's unreliable Recollections, the Letters of the Shelleys and Byron, and also in many biographies about the members of Shelley & Byron's Pisan Circle.
Read more about this topic: Edward Ellerker Williams
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