Son of renowned writer Mary Shelley and poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. He died of an infection (malaria, cholera, or typhus), on June 7, 1819, while the Shelleys were living in Rome. He was buried there at the Cimitero Degli Inglesi, sometimes called the Protestant Cemetery. Percy and Mary were distraught at the death of William, who was the third child they had lost. Mary approached a nervous breakdown. Percy immortalized his son in his poem "To William Shelley". The exact location of William's grave is in question. It was reopened in January 1823 with the intention of interring there the ashes of his father, which had been stored for some months in a chest in the wine cellar of the English Ambassador. Gravediggers discovered the bones of an adult in William's grave and it was closed. Percy's ashes were interred in another spot, close to the resting-place of his friend John Keats.
Son of renowned writer Mary Shelley and poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. He died of an infection (malaria, cholera, or typhus), on June 7, 1819, while the Shelleys were living in Rome. He was buried there at the Cimitero Degli Inglesi, sometimes called the Protestant Cemetery. Percy and Mary were distraught at the death of William, who was the third child they had lost. Mary approached a nervous breakdown. Percy immortalized his son in his poem "To William Shelley". The exact location of William's grave is in question. It was reopened in January 1823 with the intention of interring there the ashes of his father, which had been stored for some months in a chest in the wine cellar of the English Ambassador. Gravediggers discovered the bones of an adult in William's grave and it was closed. Percy's ashes were interred in another spot, close to the resting-place of his friend John Keats.
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