Harriett Jay

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A now largely-forgotten novelist and playwright, HJ was prolific and popular in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. She wrote eight novels, the majority devoted to the contemporary state of Ireland from an Anglo viewpoint and in a style reminiscent of the sensation novel or romance. Her novels are out of print, but most are available online. HJ also co-wrote ten plays—in both comedic and melodramatic style—with her adopted father, Robert Williams Buchanan . After Buchanan's death she wrote as her final work his biography.
Black and white photograph of Harriett Jay, seated in a chair and leaning her elbow on a desk, with a potted plant behind. She is wearing a long, simple, white dress with lace trim at the sleeves and throat, and a silver bracelet and ring. Her light hair is pulled back, with short curls in front.

Milestones

1857
HJ was born in or near London.
HJ 's London landlord at the time of the 1881 census listed her as born in Kent, while the website on her brother-in-law says she was born at Grays in Essex. A parish register entry for a Harriet Jay born to Emma Jay in Shoreditch workhouse in East London on 24 December 1859 is intriguing.
“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Regan, Patrick. “Harriett Jay”. Robert Williams Buchanan (1841-1901).
In the 1917 Who's WhoHJ gave her birthdate as 1863, but this would have her publishing novels at the age of twelve.
Who’s Who. A. and C. Black, 1917.
1917
Blain, Virginia, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy, editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
By 25 September 1875
HJ anonymously published her first book, a novel set in Ireland in the area where she herself was living, titled The Queen of Connaught. It remains arguably her best-known novel.
The Academy.
8 (25 September 1875): 328
By 7 February 1903
HJ published her only non-fiction book and the last writing she worked on, a life of her late adoptive father: Robert Buchanan : Some Account of His Life, His Life's Work, and His Literary Friendships.
The Academy.
64 (7 February 1903): 123
17 September 1906
Under the sole writing credit of HJ (as Charles Marlowe), her best-known play, When Knights Were Bold, opened at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham.
Regan, Patrick. “When Knights Were Bold”. Robert Williams Buchanan (1841-1901).
21 December 1932
HJ died at the age of seventy-nine at her house, The Cottage, 20 Seymour Gardens, at Ilford in Essex, after a long illness.
Regan, Patrick. “Harriett Jay”. Robert Williams Buchanan (1841-1901).

Biography

Birth and Background

1857
HJ was born in or near London.
HJ 's London landlord at the time of the 1881 census listed her as born in Kent, while the website on her brother-in-law says she was born at Grays in Essex. A parish register entry for a Harriet Jay born to Emma Jay in Shoreditch workhouse in East London on 24 December 1859 is intriguing.
“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Regan, Patrick. “Harriett Jay”. Robert Williams Buchanan (1841-1901).
In the 1917 Who's WhoHJ gave her birthdate as 1863, but this would have her publishing novels at the age of twelve.
Who’s Who. A. and C. Black, 1917.
1917
Blain, Virginia, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy, editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.

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