Life account

Born in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, she married Peter Davys, master of the free school of St Patrick's, Dublin, and had two daughters both of whom seem to have died in infancy. After being widowed she moved to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 1700 in order to make a living.

She published The Amours of Alcippus and Lucippe in 1704 but did not have a second publication until The Northern Heiress, a comedy critical of the marriage market. Initially produced in York

York

York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

 in 1715, it debuted in London in 1716 at Lincoln's Inn Fields and she bought a coffeehouse in Cambridge with the proceeds and to support herself.

Davys is best known, however, for her novels: The Reform'd Coquet

The Reform'd Coquet

The Reform'd Coquet, alternately titled The Memoirs of Amoranda, is a novella, about 70 pages long, written by Mary Davys and published in 1724. It is an important work in helping to establish the form of the novel, as dramas were the dominant form of literature at the time. According to feminist...

is a successful early example of the novel of education, and her Familiar Letters, an epistolary novel which satirised the upper classes, preceded those of Richardson

Samuel Richardson

Samuel Richardson was an 18th-century English writer and printer. He is best known for his three epistolary novels: Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded , Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady and The History of Sir Charles Grandison...

. Her writing is often direct, even blunt: for example, the main character in The accomplish'd rake, a debauched womanizer, is presented without euphemism. She was attacked in The Grub-Street Journal in 1731 for being "bawdy" but she "replied with vigour." She lived in Cambridge until her death after a period of ill health.

Plays

• The Northern Heiress, or, The Humours of York (1715)
• The Self-Rival (Works, 1725)

Prose

• Amours of Alcipus and Lucippe (1704; revised as The Lady's Tale in 1725)
• The Fugitive (1705; revised as The Merry Wanderer in 1725)
• The Reform'd Coquet
  The Reform'd Coquet
  The Reform'd Coquet, alternately titled The Memoirs of Amoranda, is a novella, about 70 pages long, written by Mary Davys and published in 1724. It is an important work in helping to establish the form of the novel, as dramas were the dominant form of literature at the time. According to feminist...
  
  , or, Memoirs of Amoranda
  The Reform'd Coquet
  The Reform'd Coquet, alternately titled The Memoirs of Amoranda, is a novella, about 70 pages long, written by Mary Davys and published in 1724. It is an important work in helping to establish the form of the novel, as dramas were the dominant form of literature at the time. According to feminist...
  
  (1724)
• Familiar letters betwixt a gentleman and lady (Works, 1725)
• The accomplish'd rake, or, Modern fine gentleman (1727)
• The Cousins