• Name: Imlay, Gilbert
• Gender: Male
• Birth Date: 9  February  1754
• Death Date: 20  November  1828
• Occupation: land speculator
• Occupation: author

Although there are four entries to Imlay in the diary, none in fact refer to Gilbert Imlay.

Gilbert Imlay was an American radical (Marshall, p. 178) and the father of Fanny, Mary Wollstonecraft’s first daughter. The two were never married, although Wolsstonecraft was known to many as Mrs Imlay in London in 1796-7. In 1795 Mary volunteered to travel to Scandinavia to help settle some of his business affairs, which had fallen into disarray, and upon her return she found him with another woman – possibly an actress (DNB). Their relationship finally finished early in 1796.

The entries for Imlay all occur within two days in April 1796, and including a dinner hosted by Godwin on the 22nd April with a group of friends including James Mackintosh, Holcroft, Elizabeth Inchbald, and Dr Parr and his daughters (Marshall, p. 182). Biographers have treated this as the occasion on which Godwin introduces Wolstonecraft to a wider circle of his friends - that is they have assumed that Imlay is being used to refer to Wollstonecraft rather than to her former lover. However, it is a very striking case of inconsistency for Godwin - because there is an entry the day before to Wollstonecraft, followed by the first entry of 'Imlay calls'. Moreover, the use of Imlay is never repeated. However, Godwin himself notes: "In my little deserted mansion, I received on the 22d of April, a party of twelve persons, the most of whom good-humouredly invited themselves to dine with me, and for whom I ordered provisions from a neighbouring coffee-house. Among this party were Dr Parr and his two daughters, Mr and Mrs Mackintosh, Mr Holcroft, Mrs Wollstonecraft, and Mrs Inchbald." ( Kegan Paul, vol 1, page 154).

• DNB
• C. Kegan Paul, William Godwin and his Contemporaries vol. 1, p. 154 (and see p. 38)
• Marshall, p. 182
• St Clair, p. 162
• Locke, p. 119

This table lists the people this person is most frequently noted with in the diary.