Mary Hayley nee Wilkes was an English businesswoman.
30 Facts About Mary Hayley
2.
Mary Hayley parlayed an inheritance from her first husband into a sizeable estate with her second husband.
3.
Mary Hayley turned out to be a shrewd businessman, increasing her inherited wealth tenfold during his lifetime.
4.
Mary Hayley rechristened the frigate the United States and moved to Boston, where she lived for eight years.
5.
Mary Hayley successfully recouped her losses from the Crown, as it was unable to prove that she owed duty, as British merchants were exempt if one-third of their crew was British.
6.
In 1786, Mary Hayley married a Scottish merchant in Boston, Patrick Jeffrey.
7.
Mary Hayley's mother was the daughter of a prosperous tanner and her father was a distiller.
8.
Mary Hayley's siblings included Sarah, known as Sally, who was said to have been the inspiration for Charles Dickens' character Miss Havisham in Great Expectations.
9.
Mary Hayley had little use for either religion or other women, preferring to surround herself with the company of eminent male writers and scholars.
10.
Mary Hayley had a reserved seat at the Old Bailey, where she attended trials.
11.
Mary Hayley's curiosity compelled her to travel widely in Britain each summer in order to improve her knowledge.
12.
Mary Hayley enjoyed racing around London in her coach at breakneck speeds.
13.
George Mary Hayley used his wife's money well, becoming one of the wealthiest merchants in London, one time president of Lloyd's of London, and a member of the House of Commons from 1774 to 1781.
14.
Mary Hayley brought her husband into the social and political circle of her brother John, and though George was taciturn in public and in their private life, he was aggressive in his business dealings.
15.
Mary Hayley operated at 9 Laurence Pountney Lane, as George Hayley and at 18 Great Ayliff Street on Goodman's Fields, he operated as both Hayley and Rotch and as Hayley and Hopkins.
16.
Rotch and Mary Hayley owned several ships together, including the Abigail, the America, and the Egmont.
17.
Mary Hayley owned a ship with John Hancock, which was used to transport tea to the colonies.
18.
Mary Hayley returned to London with the fleet in 1777.
19.
Mary Hayley became Hayley's chief clerk and a permanent houseguest in the Hayley home.
20.
In 1781, George Hayley died and Mary took over the business, writing letters to his former business associates to assure them her firm would continue to serve them.
21.
In 1783, Dinah had married a captain of the Devon Militia, Robert Baker, whom Mary Hayley considered a fortune-hunter because he was deeply in debt.
22.
Mary Hayley wrote to her business partners informing them that she was leaving Alexander Champion, junior in charge of her affairs in London for the duration of her sojourn abroad.
23.
Mary Hayley purchased a frigate known as the Delaware which had been built in Philadelphia in 1776, but was captured by the British during the Chesapeake Bay blockade and after the war was sold by the British Navy.
24.
Mary Hayley was quick to pursue relationships with her business partners and gain a favourable reputation with Boston's elite through efforts such as giving Hancock a new coach.
25.
Mary Hayley spent her first Christmas in America with Catharine Macaulay, Nathanael Greene, Lafayette and George Washington, first visiting Washington's Mount Vernon estate in Virginia and then accompanying the party to New England.
26.
Unusual for a woman at the time, Mary Hayley became a benefactor to the poor and contributed to numerous charitable endeavours, including providing funds to care for both veterans of the war and widows; wood for the poor; blankets for prisoners; and donating money to a Charlestown meeting house and to a fund financing improvements of Boston Common.
27.
Mary Hayley was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Humane Society, which was organised to save drowning victims.
28.
Mary Hayley claimed no duty was due as she was a British subject and owned the boat and at least one-third of the crew were British subjects.
29.
Mary Hayley had gone to England in 1785 and went on to France to develop business interests there.
30.
Mary Hayley did not divorce her husband, which would have required an act of parliament, but they lived apart.