Shelley's father would fund his widow only if she published no biography, and she kept the remains of his heart in her desk

Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned when his sailing boat sank in a storm near Viareggio. His body washed up about ten days later and was cremated on the beach. His father, Sir Timothy Shelley, controlled the family estate. He offered to support Shelley's son, Percy Florence, only if the boy was handed to a guardian he appointed. Mary Shelley refused. He granted her a limited allowance that she would have to repay when Percy Florence inherited, and he threatened to stop it if any biography of the poet appeared. In 1826 Percy Florence became heir after his half-brother Charles died, and Sir Timothy raised the allowance from £100 to £250 a year, dealing with Mary only through lawyers. For the 1838 Poetical Works he barred a biography; Mary was paid £500 to edit it and put the life story into notes on the poems. Sir Timothy died in 1844, and mother and son became financially independent. Mary died in 1851. On the first anniversary of her death her son and daughter-in-law opened her box-desk and found a silk parcel with some of Shelley's ashes and the remains of his heart. Historians doubt it was his heart. It was buried with Percy Florence in 1889.