Although there is evidence of Roman and Saxon occupation of the site, the earliest mention of Brighton (Bristelmeston, Brichelmestone, Brighthelmston) is the Domesday Book record that its three manors belonged to Earl Godwin and were held by William de Warenne.
Of more importance than these, or than the Royal Magazine (1759-1771) was the Monthly Magazine (1796-1843), with which Priestley and Godwin were originally connected.
According to tradition, a nunnery to which the manor belonged existed here before the Conquest, and Earl Godwin, by bringing about its dissolution, obtained the manor.
In 1863 Captain Godwin Austen accompanied Sir Ashley Eden's mission to the court of the Deb raja, and made a survey of the route to Punakha.
In England, besides the ballads in Percy's Reliques, William Godwin introduced the idea of an eternal witness of the course of civilization in his St Leon (1799),(1799), and his son-in-law Shelley introduces Ahasuerus in his Queen Mab.
