Gilbert Imlay

Gilbert Imlay (February 9, 1754 – November 20, 1828) was an American businessman, author, and diplomat. He served in the U.S. embassy to France and became one of the earliest American writers, producing two books, the influential A Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America, and a novel, The Emigrants, both of which promoted settlement in the North American interior. Imlay was known in his day as a shrewd but unscrupulous businessman involved in land speculation in Kentucky. However, he is best known today for his brief affair with British feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft, which resulted in the birth of a daughter, Fanny Imlay. Life Little is known of Imlay's early life. He was born in 1754, probably in Upper Freehold, New Jersey, where the Imlay family first settled in the early 18th century. During the American Revolutionary War he served in the New Jersey Line, enlisting for a time in Forman's Additional Continental Regiment. He rose to the rank of First Lieutenant in the Continental Army; though he would later style himself "Captain", there is no evidence he ever actually attained that rank.