 She was born in 1759, into a family of Protestant dissenters who rejected the practices of the Church of England (the established church).Hays was described by those who disliked her as 'the baldest disciple of [Mary] Wollstonecraft' by "The Anti Jacobin Magazine", attacked as an 'unsex'd female' by clergyman Robert Polwhele, and provoked controversy through her long life with her rebellious writings.When Hays's fiancé John Eccles died on the eve of their marriage, Hays expected to die of grief herself.