 On 30 August 1797 , Wollstonecraft gave birth to her second daughter , Mary . Although the delivery seemed to go well initially , the placenta broke apart during the birth and became infected ; puerperal ( childbed ) fever was a common and often fatal occurrence in the eighteenth century . After several days of agony , Wollstonecraft died of septicaemia on 10 September . Godwin was devastated : he wrote to his friend Thomas Holcroft , " I firmly believe there does not exist her equal in the world . I know from experience we were formed to make each other happy . I have not the least expectation that I can now ever know happiness again . " She was buried at Old Saint Pancras Churchyard , where her tombstone reads , " Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin , Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman : Born 27 April 1759 : Died 10 September 1797 . " ( In 1851 , her remains were moved by her grandson Percy Florence Shelley to his family tomb in St Peter 's Church , Bournemouth . ) Her monument in the churchyard lies to the north @-@ east of the church just north of Sir John Soane 's grave . Her husband was buried with her on his death in 1836 , as was his second wife , Mary Jane Godwin ( 1766 – 1841 ) . 
