• Name: Hays, Mary
• Gender: Female
• Birth Date: 4  May  1759
• Death Date: 20  February  1843
• Occupation: writer

Mary Hays was one of several close female friends of Godwin, with whom he had a complex and often difficult relationship, as is evidenced in their correspondence, available in Marilyn L. Brooks, ed. The Correspondence (1779-1843) of Mary Hays, British Novelist. Hays re-introduced Godwin to Mary Wollstonecraft in 1796. She was the author of Memoirs of Emma Courtenay (1796), a novel in which some of Godwin's correspondence with her is reproduced.

The central issue problem is whether M Hays, Miss Hayes, Hayes, M Hayes and Hays all refer to the same person. In what follows we can show that Godwin certainly uses all four to refer to Mary Hays. What is more difficult to determine is whether each is used exclusively to refer to her. The coding presumes they do; the reasoning is given below.

The first letter from Hays to Godwin is dated 14 October 1794 (not noted in the diary). Hays solicits the loan of PJ, but talks about doing it through an intermediary. There is then an entry in the diary for 15 November 1794 'call on Miss Hayes'. She then writes on 7 December 1794 about reading PJ - 'the book you obligingly put into my hands' . On 7 December 1794 the diary records: 'Walker and Hayes call', which the letters do not refer to and which may not be Mary Hays. . A third letter on 1 January 1795 refers to having finished the book (no note in the diary). She invites him to take a family dinner with her in Paragon Place. On 29 January 1795 he has tea with Miss Hayes. On 6 May 1795 she refers to the last time she saw him at Paragon Place (which seems to be the January visit) and she says that Mr Frend, Mr Dyer and one or two more friends are engaged to drink tea with me any day after Wednesday in next week (except Sunday) and she invites Godwin to join them. He does so on 14 May when he enters 'tea miss Hayes's, w Frend, Dyer, Brown, Brook, +c; talk of God'. So Godwin is referring to her in the diary and letters at this stage as Miss Hayes. On 13 October 1795 she writes to him saying that 'I always see you with pleasure and am sorry when you take your leave' - and he has seen her on Oct 12 when he calls on Miss Hayes.

On 5 November 1795 she writes she has been 'much indisposed since I saw you'. The prior entry in the diary is for 'Hayes' on 23 October 1795, there being no entry for Miss Hayes between 12 October and 5 November. If the letter saying she has been ill since they last met refers to a meeting she has not previously alluded to in correspondence, it suggests (as does the 7 December 1794 entry) that Godwin does not always use 'Miss' with Hayes. The meeting with Wollstonecraft is on 8 January 1796 - and the location is still referred to as 'Miss Hayes's' - and in the note confirming he can make it he says that he has 'not the slightest suspicion of you having disgusted Mr Holcroft by interrupting the discussion on Sunday by your departure - which seems to refer to Dec 27 (although he dines at Holcroft's on the 3 January no Hayes is present ) but the entry for the 27th is to 'M Hayes' (the first use of this form). On 18 January he writes he is 'under engagement to drink tea with you on Wednesday' - and on Wednesday 20 he enters 'tea Hayes's w. Draper and Brown'. This seems to confirm the use of Hayes as referring to Miss Hayes. He also uses this when he calls on her while she is dressing so that they do not meet - (Correspondence, p. 444, 10 March 1796). The first use of M Hayes is 27 December 1795 when the entry is 'dine at Ht's , w. Perry, Gray, col Barry, Kentish, T, C, M Hayes + E M; adv. Porson.' The absence of an ampersand between C and M Hayes suggests that T and C are not Hayes at all. On the other hand, Mary Hays did have a brother Thomas, although no relation as far as we are aware with an initial C. The second use of M Hayes is 2 February 1796, when he writes to M Hayes, but no letter is extant.. Two other M Hayes entries in March 1796 give no further clues. These then seem to be replaced by a more consistent use of 'Hayes' until the first M Hays appears in September 1796. After this there is some switching between Hayes, Hays, M. Hays, but the entries do become more consistently Hays and then M Hays. Godwin and Hays have a disagreement over the return of letters after Wolstonecraft's death, and the letters exchanged are somewhat tetchy, but there is no reason to think that the entries in the diary to Hays after this date do not refer to Mary Hays.

However, 'Hayes, br' has been left uncoded; it has been assumed it is a reference to a brother (Thomas).

• MS. Abinger c. 49, fols. 52-3: 30 November 1836
• MS. Abinger c. 54, fols. 61-4: 22 October 1797
• MS. Abinger c. 55, fols. 34-5: 27 October 1797
• MS. Abinger c. 22, fols. 58-9: 5 October 1797
• MS. Abinger c. 22, fols. 60-1: 10 October 1797
• MS. Abinger c. 22, fols. 78-9: 27 October 1797
• MS. Abinger c. 22, fols. 18-21: 2 Feb. 1796
• DNB
• The Correspondence (1779-1843) of Mary Hays, British Novelist, ed. by Marilyn L. Brooks (Lewiston, Queenston and Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2004).

This table lists the people this person is most frequently noted with in the diary.