Mary and her two sisters, Francis Ann (1830–1884) and Susan Elizabeth, an artist (1840–1908) remained unmarried and continued to live at home with their mother.

Mary's father died in 1856 aged sixty-five and her mother took control of the business, despite financial difficulties,[7] passing it to her son Thomas in 1872.

[8][9] One of Hay's novels, For Her Dear Sake, is part set near the Lizard in Cornwall, a short distance from the Grade and Ruan parishes where she was staying with the family of Rev.

[12] Emily was a good amateur artist and painted several studies of the old buildings in Shrewsbury, many of which can be seen on the Darwin Country museum and library web site.

Mary Cecil Hay's knowledge of the arts was reflected in reviews that she wrote for the Royal Academy Exhibition and the Grosvenor Gallery in 1880.

In the evening, as the visitors started to return home across the bridge, it gave way and ten people, including women and children, were drowned.

At the inquest the mayor of Shrewsbury told the jury that he had given Walter Hay permission for the pontoon, only on condition that the construction was placed in the hands of a suitably qualified person.

This may seem improbable, but the episode was lifted from the real story of William Maxwell, 5th Earl of Nithsdale, who escaped from the Tower of London the night before his execution in 1716 dressed as a woman.

A stranger called Royston Keith arrives in town and takes interest in the affairs of the family, much to the concern of a villainous lawyer who hopes to be one of the beneficiaries.

[22] Hay died in a house called Bay Trees, East Preston, West Sussex on 24 July 1886[23] after a fifteen-year career followed by a long illness.

In addition to her novels, Hay wrote poems, novellas and short stories, published both in Britain and abroad, occasionally under different titles.

When she started to use the name M. Cecil Hay for titles such as Victor Vanquished and Kate's Engagement some reviewers mistakenly believed that the author was a man.

She requested even her friends to address their letters simply to Mary Cecil Hay.A Dark Inheritance A Father's Story A Few Days A Little Aversion A Midnight Meeting A Name Cut in the Gate A Shadow on the Threshold A Sisters Story A Wicked Girl After the Lessons All Through Arethusa Alphonzo's Ghost Among the Ruins The Arundel Motto At Last At the Seaside Atholl Back to the Old Home Bart Bannatyne’s City Home Bertha's Christmas Box Bid Me Discourse Brenda Yorke By a Leap By and By By The Night Express

Dolf s Big Brother Dorothy's Venture For Her Dear Sake Guy Newton's Revenge Hamilton Brothers He Stoops to Conquer The Heir of Rosscairne Hidden Perils Hope Deferred How a fairy tale ended How I Wrote a Novel In the Christmas Firelight In the Holidays Into the Shade, and other stories Kate's Engagement Kenneth Lady Carmichael's Will Larry’s Hut Leoline Lester's Secret Lettice Vere's Last Christmas-Day Locked In London Pride Lost Harmony Mid Pleasures Missing Mrs Duncan's Eccentricity My First Offer My only Novel Nettie Dunkayne Nora's Love Test Notes from a German Band Old Myddelton's Money On a Monument On the Line One Summer Month One Terrible Christmas Eve One Winter Night Page Ninety-Two Pennie's Choice Ploughed by Moments Reaping the Whirlwind Ricardo’s Benefit Sir Rupert's Room Stop Thief!

The Arrandel Motto The Blackbird's Nest The End if a Fairy Tale The Housekeeper's Story By The Night Express The Old Bell Ringer (poem) The Sorrow of a Secret Story The Squire's Legacy Through the Breakers Through the Wind and Rain Told in New England Told in a Picture Gallery Two Hallow Eves Under the Will Under Life's Key Upon the Waters Victor and Vanquished We Four Well Done!