Mary Hays
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Mary Hays (1759–1843) was an autodidact intellectual who published essays, poetry, novels and several works on famous (and infamous) women. She is remembered for her early feminism, and her close relations to dissenting and radical thinkers of her time including Robert Robinson,
Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...
,
William Godwin William Godwin (3 March 1756 – 7 April 1836) was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism. Godwin is most famous for ...
and William Frend. She was born in 1759, into a family of Protestant dissenters who rejected the practices of the Church of England (the established church). Hays was described by those who disliked her as 'the baldest disciple of aryWollstonecraft' by ''The Anti Jacobin Magazine'', attacked as an 'unsex'd female' by clergyman Robert Polwhele, and provoked controversy through her long life with her rebellious writings. When Hays's fiancé John Eccles died on the eve of their marriage, Hays expected to die of grief herself. But this apparent tragedy meant that she escaped an ordinary future as wife and mother, remaining unmarried. She seized the chance to make a career for herself in the larger world as a writer. Hays was influenced by
Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...
's ''
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ''A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects'' (1792), written by British philosopher and women's rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797), is one of the earliest works of feminist philosoph ...
'', and after writing admiringly to her, the two women became friends. The backlash following Wollstonecraft's death and posthumous publication of her ''
Memoirs A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...
'' impacted Hays' later work, which some scholars have called more conservative. Among these later productions is the six-volume compendium '' Female Biography: or Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women of All Ages and Countries'', in which Wollstonecraft is not mentioned, although Hays had written an extensive obituary for ''The Annual Necrology'' shortly after Godwin's controversial ''Memoirs''. If Wollstonecraft was neglected through the nineteenth century, Hays and her writing received even less critical evaluation or academic attention until the twentieth-century's emerging
feminist movement The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for Radical politics, radical and Liberalism, liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality b ...
.


Early years

Mary Hays was born in Southwark, London 4 May 1759, the daughter of Rational Dissenters John and Elizabeth Hays. They lived in
Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...
, London, on Gainsford Street. Her father died young, leaving Hays an
annuity In investment, an annuity is a series of payments made at equal intervals.Kellison, Stephen G. (1970). ''The Theory of Interest''. Homewood, Illinois: Richard D. Irwin, Inc. p. 45 Examples of annuities are regular deposits to a savings account, mo ...
of £70 a year, as long as she did not marry without her mother's approval. Hays' early education is shaped by poetry, novels, and religious and political debates at the Dissenting meeting house. In 1777 she met and fell in love with John Eccles. Their parents opposed the match, but they met secretly and exchanged many letters between 1779 and 1780. In August 1780, just after Eccles received a job which would allow him to marry Hays, Eccles died of a sudden fever. He left Hays all his papers, including the letters she had sent him. Hay's first book, not published in her lifetime, was based on these letters, re-copied and editorialized into a semi-autobiographical
epistolary novel An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of letters. The term is often extended to cover novels that intersperse documents of other kinds with the letters, most commonly diary entries and newspaper clippings, and sometimes considered ...
. Hays wrote: "All my pleasures – and every opening prospect are buried with him". After a year in mourning, Hays dedicated herself to an intellectual life of writing. Her first published poem, "Invocation to a Nightingale," appeared in the ''Lady's Poetical Magazine'' in 1781. Subsequent early publications in periodical include two poems in 1785, and a short story, "Hermit: an Oriental Tale," published in 1786 and reprinted twice. It was a
picturesque Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in ''Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year ...
tale that warned against feeling too much passion. From 1782 to 1790, Hays met and exchanged letters with Robert Robinson, a minister who campaigned against the slave trade. She attended the dissenting academy in Hackney in the late 1780s.


Success in writing

In 1791 she replied to
Gilbert Wakefield Gilbert Wakefield (1756–1801) was an English scholar and controversialist. He moved from being a cleric and academic, into tutoring at dissenting academies, and finally became a professional writer and publicist. In a celebrated state trial ...
's critique of communal worship with a pamphlet called ''Cursory Remarks on An Enquiry into the Expediency and Propriety of Public or Social Worship'', using the nom-de-plume Eusebia. The Cambridge mathematician William Frend wrote to her enthusiastically about it. This blossomed into a brief romance. In 1792 Hays was given a copy of ''
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ''A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects'' (1792), written by British philosopher and women's rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797), is one of the earliest works of feminist philosoph ...
'' by
Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...
, and it made a deep impression on her. Hays contacted the publisher of the book,
Joseph Johnson Joseph Johnson may refer to: Entertainment *Joseph McMillan Johnson (1912–1990), American film art director *Smokey Johnson (1936–2015), New Orleans jazz musician * N.O. Joe (Joseph Johnson, born 1975), American musician, producer and songwrit ...
, which led to her friendship with Wollstonecraft and involvement with London's
Jacobin , logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg , logo_size = 180px , logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794) , motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir) , successor = Pa ...
intellectual circle. Hays next wrote a book ''Letters and Essays'' (1793) and invited Mary Wollstonecraft to comment on it before publication. Although the reviews were mixed Hays decided to leave home and to try to support herself by writing. She moved to
Hatton Garden Hatton Garden is a street and commercial zone in the Holborn district of the London Borough of Camden, abutting the narrow precinct of Saffron Hill which then abuts the City of London. It takes its name from Sir Christopher Hatton, a favourit ...
. She did not have enough money to buy ''
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice ''Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Morals and Happiness'' is a 1793 book by the philosopher William Godwin, in which the author outlines his political philosophy. It is the first modern work to expound anarchism. Backg ...
'' by
William Godwin William Godwin (3 March 1756 – 7 April 1836) was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism. Godwin is most famous for ...
. Boldly she wrote to the author and asked to borrow it. This turned into a friendship, in which Godwin became a guide and teacher. She acted on Wollstonecraft's demand that women take charge of their lives and moved out of her mother's home to live as an independent woman in London. This was an extraordinary and unaccustomed act for a single woman in Hays's time: Hays's mother was horrified, and Hays's friends condemned her. Although Hays's family were outsiders from mainstream British culture, Hays's mother still disapproved of her daughter's social rebellion.


''Emma Courtney''

Her next work, ''
Memoirs of Emma Courtney ''Memoirs of Emma Courtney'' is an epistolary novel by Mary Hays, first published in 1796. The novel is partly autobiographical and based on the author's own unrequited love for William Frend (social reformer), William Frend] Mary Hay's relationsh ...
'' (1796) is probably her best-known. Hays's experiment with 'the idea of being free', and her romantic heartbreak over the Frend affair, were its subjects. The novel draws on love letters to William Frend (who was ultimately unreceptive) and includes material taken also from her more philosophical letters in which she debated with William Godwin. The heroine, Emma, falls in love with Augustus Harley, who is the son of a dear friend, but lacking an income. Recognizing that he cannot afford marriage, she offers to live with him as his wife without getting married. Emma tells the Frend figure that her desire for him trumps every other consideration: reputation, status, and even chastity. In the most notorious statement in the book, Emma plays on Frend's name: ‘My friend’, she cries, ‘I would give myself to you – the gift is not worthless’. In real life and in the novel, Frend rejected Hays. Readers were shocked at her inclusion of real letters she had exchanged with Godwin and Frend. Hays's disgrace was juicy gossip in the close-knit group of London publishing. In 1800 Scottish writer Elizabeth Hamilton (writer), Elizabeth Hamilton published ''
Memoirs of Modern Philosophers ''Memoirs of Modern Philosophers'' is a novel by British author Elizabeth Hamilton published in 1800. Responding to the Revolution Controversy of the 1790s and the debates about what roles women should occupy in English society, the novel cont ...
'', a novel that satirised Hays as a sex-hungry man-chaser, and Hays became a laughingstock throughout Britain.


Later years

Hays and Godwin fell out, and she turned her attention to other writers, including
Robert Southey Robert Southey ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a ra ...
and unfortunately Charles Lloyd. There is no known portrait of her in later life, but
Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...
referred to her as "a thing ugly and petticoated" (although his real complaint was her arguing theology with him). Her next novel ''
The Victim of Prejudice ''The Victim of Prejudice'' is a novel by the English novelist Mary Hays. Published in 1799, it is Hays' second novel. The novel, depicting the challenges that its protagonist, Mary, encounters throughout her life, underlines the difficulty that ...
'' (1799) is more emphatically feminist in its focus on women's secondary status and criticism of class hierarchies. Hays was considered too radical and her book did not sell well. In 1803 Hays demonstrated her continuing concern with women's lives and work, publishing '' Female Biography'', a book in six volumes, containing the lives of 294 women from ancient figures to near contemporaries. Some scholars have argued that by this stage Hays realised that it was dangerous to praise Mary Wollstonecraft, and so omitted her from the book. Others have argued that Hays had little to lose and did not include Wollstonecraft for other reasons—her stated reason that she was too recently dead, and because she had already written and published a full obituary that should perhaps be considered part of ''Female Biography''. Moving to
Camberwell Camberwell () is a district of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross. Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles and a common of which Goose Green is a remnant. This e ...
in 1804 thanks to the income from ''Female Biography'', Hays became known to more literary figures of the time, including
Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...
and
Mary Lamb Mary Anne Lamb (3 December 1764 – 20 May 1847) was an English writer. She is best known for the collaboration with her brother Charles on the collection ''Tales from Shakespeare'' (1807). Mary suffered from mental illness, and in 1796, aged 3 ...
and
William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...
. The last 20 years of her life were difficult, with little income and only moderate praise for her work. During this period, she published ''Memoirs of Queens, Illustrious and Celebrated '' (1821). In 1824 Hays returned to London where she died in on 20 February1843. She is buried at
Abney Park Cemetery Abney Park cemetery is one of the "Magnificent Seven" cemeteries in London, England. Abney Park in Stoke Newington in the London Borough of Hackney is a historic parkland originally laid out in the early 18th century by Lady Mary Abney, D ...
, Church Street,
Stoke Newington Stoke Newington is an area occupying the north-west part of the London Borough of Hackney in north-east London, England. It is northeast of Charing Cross. The Manor of Stoke Newington gave its name to Stoke Newington the ancient parish. The ...
, London.


Legacy

Mary Hays is memorialised in the Heritage Floor of
Judy Chicago Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history ...
's ''
The Dinner Party ''The Dinner Party'' is an installation artwork by feminist artist Judy Chicago. Widely regarded as the first epic feminist artwork, it functions as a symbolic history of women in civilization. There are 39 elaborate place settings on a triangul ...
'', near the place setting for
Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...
. Her letters are held at the
New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...
, Astor and Tilden Foundation thanks to the work of Dr.
Gina Luria Walker Gina Luria Walker is Professor of Women's Studies and Director of The New Historia at The New School in New York City. She teaches Women's Intellectual History and is one of world's foremost scholars on eighteenth-century feminist intellectual Mary ...
.


List of works

All by Mary Hays; dates are for first editions. * ''Cursory remarks on an enquiry into the expediency and propriety of public or social worship: inscribed to Gilbert Wakefield'' (as Eusebia). London: Knott, 1791. * ''Letters and essays, moral, and miscellaneous''. London: Knott, 1793. * ''Memoirs of Emma Courtney'' (2 volumes). London: G.G. & J. Robinson, 1796. * ''Appeal to the men of Great Britain in behalf of women'' (as Anonymous). London: J. Johnson and J. Bell, 1798. * ''The victim of prejudice: In two volumes''. London: J. Johnson, 1799. * '' Female Biography, or Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women of All Ages and Countries'' (6 volumes). London: R. Phillips, 1803. * ''Harry Clinton: a tale for youth. ''London: J. Johnson, 1804. * ''Family annals, or, The sisters''. London: W. Simpkin & R. Marshall, 1817. * ''Memoirs of Queens, illustrious and celebrated''. London: T. & J. Allman, 1821. * ''The Love-Letters of Mary Hays (1779–1780)''. Ed. A.F. Wedd. London: Methuen, 1925. Posthumous.


Notes


Further reading

* Butler, Marilyn. ''Jane Austen and the War of Ideas.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975. * Hays, Mary; Walker, Gina Luria (ed.). ''The idea of being free: a Mary Hays reader.'' Orchard Park, NY: Broadview Press, 2006. * "Introduction," Mary Hays, ''Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries'' (1803) ''Chawton House Library Series: Women’s Memoirs'', ed. Gina Luria Walker, ''Memoirs of Women Writers Part II'' (Pickering & Chatto: London, 2013), vol. 5, xiv. * Johnson, Claudia L. ''Jane Austen: Women, Politics, and the Novel.'' Chicago: University of Chicago, 1988. * Kelly, Gary. ''Women, Writing, and Revolution, 1790–1827''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993. * McInnes, Andrew. (September 2011). "Feminism in the Footnotes: Wollstonecraft's Ghost in Mary Hays' Female Biography". ''Life Writing'', v.8(3): pp. 273–285. * McInnes, Andrew. (30 November 2012). "Wollstonecraft's Legion: Feminism in Crisis, 1799". ''Women's Writing'': pp. 1–17. * Mellor, Anne K. ''Romanticism and Gender''. New York: Routledge, 1993. * Sherman, Sandra. "The Feminization of 'Reason' in Hays's ''The Victim of Prejudice''". ''The Centennial Review'' 41.1 (1997): 143–72. * Sherman, Sandra. "The Law, Confinement, and Disruptive Excess in Hays' ''The Victim of Prejudice''". ''1650–1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era''. Vol. 5. New York: AMS Press, 1998. * Spencer, Jane, ''The Rise of the Woman Novelist: From Aphra Behn to Jane Austen''. Oxford: Blackwell, 1986. * Spender, Dale. '' Mothers of the Novel: 100 Good Women Writers before Jane Austen''. New York: Pandora, 1986. *
Todd, Janet Janet Margaret Todd OBE (born 10 September 1942) is a British academic and author. She was educated at Cambridge University and the University of Florida, where she undertook a doctorate on the poet John Clare. Much of her work concerns Mary ...
, ''The Sign of Angellica: Women, Writing and Fiction, 1660–1800''. London: Virago, 1989. * Ty, Eleanor. "The Imprisoned Female Body in Mary Hays" ''The Victim of Prejudice''. ''Women, Revolution and the Novels of the 1790s''. Ed. Linda Lang-Peralta. * Ty, Eleanor. "Mary Hays". ''Dictionary of Literary Biography 142: Eighteenth-Century British Literary Biographers''. Ed. Steven Serafin. Detroit: Bruccoli Clark Layman, 1994. * Ty, Eleanor. ''Unsex'd Revolutionaries: Five Women Novelists of the 1790s''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993. * Walker, Gina Luria. "Mary Hays." ''Project Continua'' (2014): Accessed: 28 August 2014, "http://www.projectcontinua.org/mary-hays/" * Walker, Gina Luria. ''Mary Hays, (1759–1843): The Growth of a Woman's Mind.'' Hampshire, UK: Ashgate, 2006. * Walker, Gina Luria. Chawton House Fellow’s Lecture, ''Pride, Prejudice, Patriarchy: Jane Austen Reads Mary Hays,'' (University of Southampton English News, Jane Austen Society of North America, 2010). * Wallace, Miriam L. ''Revolutionary Subjects in the English 'Jacobin' Novel'' (Bucknell University Press, 2009).


External links

*
Hays, Mary (1759–1843)
" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' *
Mary Hays (1760–1824)
by Elma Scott for Chawton House Library, ''Biographies of Women Writers''
Mary Hays Website
by Eleanor Ty, Wilfrid Laurier University *

by Gina Luria Walker for ''Romantic Circles Features and Events'' * ''Project Continua'' "http://www.projectcontinua.org/mary-hays/" * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hays, Mary 1759 births 1843 deaths 18th-century British novelists 18th-century English non-fiction writers 18th-century British women writers 19th-century English non-fiction writers 19th-century English women writers Burials at Abney Park Cemetery English women novelists Feminism and history English feminist writers People from Southwark Writers of the Romantic era English women non-fiction writers 18th-century English women 18th-century English people