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British economist, born in Ufford (Nottinghamshire) on 24 October 1850; died in Cambridge 7 March 1944. Great-granddaughter of the great theologian William Paley, she was brought up in a strictly evangelical faith in Ufford, her father’s vicarage. Thomas Paley, had taken a good degree in mathematics (33rd wrangler) in 1833 at Cambridge, and had been, for a period, a fellow of St John’s College. Mary had one elder sister and two younger brothers.

In 1871, with a scholarship, she went up to Cambridge to complete her education with studies at university level. Under the whimsical chaperon Anne J. Clough (sister of the poet), and the teaching of a handful of young voluntary dons committed to the cause of higher education of women (among them Henry Sidgwick and Alfred Marshall), she took the Moral Sciences Tripos. She graduated, albeit informally, in 1874 (the first woman to achieve such a distinction in Cambridge) but the board of examiners (W.S. Jevons was among them) was so bitterly divided that in the certificate they recorded, very unusually, that she had received two votes for a first class and two for a second.

Shortly after her degree Mary Paley began to teach and to tutor female students in the newly opened Newnham Hall. In 1876, on request, she began to write a small economic textbook for Extension Lectures, that eventually became The Economics of Industry (1879). In the same year she became engaged to Alfred Marshall. They married in Ufford in July 1877. From that date onwards, till the death of Alfred Marshall in 1924, her life was essentially devoted, first in Bristol, where they settled after marriage, then in Oxford (1883–4) and finally in Cambridge, to helping him in his scientific work and to saving him from all the normal nuisances of life.

For several decades Mary Paley Marshall taught and tutored female students of economics in Newnham college. A member of many associations (Charity Organization Society, Ethical Society, and so on) she participated in the founding group of the British Economic Association. After 1924 she became the first librarian of the newly founded Marshall Library, which she visited regularly until her 90th year. In 1928 the University of Bristol awarded her an honorary degree. She was a gifted amateur water colour painter and her posthumous Memoir, What I Remember (1947), shows glimpses of literary talent. Mary was not buried beside Alfred, but her ashes were scattered in the garden of her house.

Mary Paley Marshall’s claims to be considered as an economist by herself are, strictly speaking, unassessable. Personally she signed only a few short notes in the early issues of the Economic Journal, which show a clear mind, a good style and a balanced judgement, but no more. Her only title to fame resides in the green-covered Economics of Industry, co-authored with Alfred Marshall. This small textbook, reprinted many times and translated into several foreign languages, was rated very highly by contemporaries. J.M. Keynes went so far as to say: ‘It was, in fact, an extremely good book; nothing more serviceable for its purpose was produced for many years, if ever.’ From the viewpoint of the development of economic analysis the book is relevant as a sort of half-way house between the Principles of J.S. Mill and the Principles of A. Marshall. Despite some hints to the contrary by J.M. Keynes, the respective positions (teacher and pupil) and ages (Alfred was older by eight years) suggest that Mary Paley’s contribution was only secondary and subordinate.

Worthy of mention is the help she afforded Alfred Marshall in preparing and amending all his works. In a letter to John Neville Keynes, there is a hint of a substantial collaboration: ‘My wife and I’, writes Alfred Marshall, alluding to an article by J.L. Laughlin (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1887), ‘find it very hard to see Laughlin’s points & perhaps we underrate the strength of his attack.’

Had it not been for the suffocating influence of Alfred, Mary Paley, with her clear mind, earnestness and strong will, would have become herself, we can confidently guess, an economist of repute and not, as is the case, a minor figure in the shadow of Alfred Marshall.

Selected Works

  • 1879. (With Alfred Marshall.) The economics of industry, 2nd ed. London: Macmillan. 1881.

  • 1896. Conference of women workers. Economic Journal 6(21), 107–109.

  • 1947. What I remember. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.