HARRIETT JAY

A Note on Harriett Jay

Harriett Jay was born in London in 1863*, the daughter of Richard Jay, an engineer. On 2nd September 1861 Robert Buchanan had married her sister Mary, so, as she writes in the Preface to Robert Buchanan. Some account of his life, his life’s work and his literary friendships, “In the eye of the law I was his sister-in-law”. She goes on to say: “When my sister had been married some three or four years, and was still childless, she resolved to adopt me. In doing this she was anxious that any love which I might have to give should be given to herself and to her husband, so I was taken from my home at a very tender age and for many years was never allowed to revisit it.” There is no sign in the book that she ever resented this curious state of affairs and she seems to have remained with Buchanan after her sister’s death in November 1881 until he passed away twenty years later.

According to Who Was Who 1929-1940, Harriett Jay was educated in Scotland (presumably when Buchanan was living in Oban from 1866 to 1874). She was an actress, appearing in London and the Provinces in Alone in London, The Bride Of Love and Fascination. She never married and died on 21st December 1932. Her last address is given as 20, Seymour Gardens, Ilford.

* Although Who Was Who 1929-1940 gives 1863 as the year of her birth I have also seen it listed as 1857, and if the three obituaries below are correct and she died at the age of 79, then this would move it back to 1853. This, however, seems far too early to fit the details of the rest of Harriett Jay’s life and I believe it is a mistake - if Harriett Jay was 69 when she died, then that would put her date of birth as 1863.

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From The Scotsman (Saturday, 24 December, 1932 - p.13)

MISS HARRIET JAY DEAD

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Writer of “When Knights Were Bold”

     MISS HARRIET JAY, the authoress of “When Knights Were Bold,” and other plays and novels, has died at her home at Ilford, Essex, after a long illness. She was 79.
     Miss Jay, who was an actress as well as an authoress, was well known on the London West End stage in the ‘eighties. She first appeared at the Gaiety in 1880, and during the next ten years at Drury Lane, Vaudeville, Adelphi, Globe, and the now long-vanished Connaught and Olympic Theatres.
     She wrote mainly under the nome-de-plume of Charles Marlowe, and it was under that name that “When Knights Were Bold” appeared. She collaborated with the late Robert Buchanan, her brother-in-law, in most of her other plays. She is to be buried with him in the family vault at St John’s Church, Southend, to-day. One of her works was a “Life of Buchanan.” She also wrote several novels.
     Miss Jay was a friend of George R. Sims, Sir Arthur Pinero, Violet Vanbrugh, Mrs Patrick Campbell, Edward Terry, and Charles Reade.

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From The Times (24 December, 1932 - p.10)

MISS HARRIET JAY

     Miss Harriet Jay, the authoress of When Knights were Bold, and other plays and novels, has died at her home at Ilford, Essex, after a long illness. She was 79 years of age.
     Miss Jay was well known on the West End stage in the eighties. She first appeared at the Gaiety in 1880 and during the next 10 years at Drury Lane, the Vaudeville, Adelphi, Globe, and the now long-vanished Connaught and Olympic theatres. She wrote mainly under the name of Charles Marlowe, and it was under that name that When Knights were Bold was written. She collaborated with the late Robert Buchanan, her brother-in-law, in most of her other plays, which included Fascination, Alone in London, and Strange Adventures of Miss Brown.

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From The Guardian (24 December, 1932 - p.3)

MISS HARRIETT JAY

Author of “When Knights Were Bold”

     Miss Harriett Jay, the dramatist, novelist, and actress, died at her home in Seymour Gardens, Ilford, on Wednesday, aged seventy-nine.
     Miss Jay’s most famous play, written under the pen name of Charles Marlowe, was “When Knights Were Bold,” first produced in 1907. In collaboration with her brother-in-law, the late Robert Buchanan, Miss Jay also wrote the plays “The Queen of Connaught,” “Alone in London,” “Fascination,” “The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown,” “The Romance of a Shopwalker,” “A Wanderer from Venus,” “The Mariners of England,” and “Two Little Maids from School.” Miss Jay frequently appeared on the stage between 1880 and 1890, her first London performance being at the Crystal Palace in 1880. She appeared at the Gaiety in the same year as Lady Jane Grey in “A Nine Days’ Queen.” She also took part in “The Madcap Prince,” 1881, “The Exiles of Erin,” 1881, “Lady Clancarty,” 1882, “Lady Clare,” 1883, “A Sailor and His Lass,” 1883, “Alone in London,” 1885, “Sapho,” 1886, “The Blue Bells of Scotland” and “Fascination,” 1887, “The Bride of Love” and “Sweet Nancy,” 1890.
     She wrote the life of Robert Buchanan, and her novels included “The Dark Colleen,” “Madge Dunraven,” “My Connaught Cousins,” “The Priest’s Blessing,” “Two Men and a Maid,” “Through the Stage Door,” and “A Marriage of Convenience.”
     She is being buried to-day in the family vault at St. John’s, Southend, with Robert Buchanan.

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From The Observer (25 December, 1932 - p.13)

FUNERAL OF HARRIET JAY.

     Miss Harriet Jay, who wrote the popular farce, “When Knights Were Bold,” over twenty-five years ago, and who died in seclusion at Ilford, at the age of seventy-nine, was buried yesterday in the family grave at St. John’s Church, Southend-on-Sea.
     The service was conducted by the vicar, the Rev. John J. Whitehouse.

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As part of my search for the remnants of Robert Buchanan’s literary estate I obtained a copy of Harriett Jay’s will in the hope that it would provide some clues. If you want to find out who got her parrott (sic) then click below:

Harriett Jay’s Will

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HARRIETT JAY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Harriett Jay's first novel, The Queen Of Connaught was published in 1875 while the Buchanans were living in Rossport, Co. Mayo. She wrote several more novels with an Irish setting (she has an entry on the Princess Grace Irish Library site) and she also wrote plays, mostly in collaboration with Robert Buchanan.
A list of her reviews as both writer and actress are available on the Harriett Jay Reviews page.

[The American edition of The Dark Colleen published by Lovell, Adam, Wesson & Co., 1877]

1. Novels

The Queen Of Connaught. 3 vols. London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1875.
The Dark Colleen. A Love Story. 3 vols. London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1876.
Madge Dunraven. 1879.
The Priest's Blessing, or Poor Patrick’s Progress from this World to a Better. London: F. V. White and Co.,1881.
Two Men and a Maid. 3 vols. London: F. V. White and Co., 1881.
My Connaught Cousins. 3 vols. London: F. V. White and Co., 1882.
Through the Stage Door. 3 vols. London: F. V. White and Co., 1883.
A Marriage Of Convenience. 3 vols. London: F. V. White and Co., 1885.

2. Plays

When Knights Were Bold. (As Charles Marlowe.) 1905.

In collaboration with Robert Buchanan:

Alone In London. 1885.
The Queen of Connaught. 1887.
Fascination. 1887.
The Strange Adventures Of Miss Brown. (As Charles Marlowe.) 1895.
(This play was later adapted into the musical comedy, Tulip Time, by Worton David, Alfred Parker and Bruce Sievier.)
The Romance of the Shopwalker. 1896.
The New Don Quixote. 1896.
The Wanderer From Venus. (An adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “The Wonderful Visit”.) 1896.
The Mariners of England. 1897.
Two Little Maids From School. (An adaptation of “Les Demoiselles de St. Cyr”.) 1898.

3. Biography

Robert Buchanan: Some Account of His Life, His Life’s Work and His Literary Friendships. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1903.

Read the online edition

Download the zipped rtf version

A Note on the Text

The photographs and drawings (some of which are used elsewhere on this site) from the book are included at the appropriate points in the online edition.

Apart from adding a missing “ at one point and correcting one typo the only major change I’ve made to the text occurs in the opening sentence of the first chapter. Miss Jay places Caverswall in Lancashire. Since the origin of this site was my interest in authors born in the Stoke-on-Trent area I thought she wouldn’t mind if I corrected her. The same mistake also caught the eye of at least one journalist:

From The Guardian (2 February, 1903 - p.4)

     I notice that the first sentence of the biography of Robert Buchanan, just published, and written by Miss Harriet Jay, contains a mistake as to Buchanan’s birthplace. “Robert Buchanan,” the sentence runs, “poet, novelist, dramatist, was born at Caverswall, in Lancashire, on the 18th of August, 1841.” There may be a Caverswall in Lancashire—though I never heard of one,—but the Caverswall where he was born is in Staffordshire, a few miles from Stoke-on-Trent. It boasts a moated castle, and is altogether a pretty place. Robert Buchanan’s father was a Socialist who came to the Potteries from Glasgow. He was one of the early disciples of Robert Owen, and one of the most prominent figures upon the side of the working potters in the great strike of 1836. He married the daughter of a solicitor named Williams, who was one of those who induced Robert Owen to make his second visit to the Potteries, in 1840, and who protected Owen from the mob at Burslem. Robert Owen was at the wedding of Miss Williams and Buchanan at a registry, and gave the bride away.

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A facsimile edition of ‘Robert Buchanan’ is also available for download in a variety of formats at the Internet Archive.