The question I wondered is why do the related Hay, Hays, and Hayes have different spellings? Is one related to a different faction of the Clan, perhaps changed to denote a different geographical area or religion or loyalty? My line spells it H-a-y-s and “no e” was the standard response to those who sought to automatically put it in. It was so often done I now state my name then spell it (Hays-H-A-Y-S), and still many put the “e” in it. But why different spellings and why the added “e” by many?
First grammar 101 – You plural a name (noun) by adding an s (no apostrophe). For names ending in s we add an es and for names ending in y we do not change to ies like other nouns and add an s after the y, exceptions to the rule. To make a name possessive we add the ‘s but here we have another rule exception in that a name ending in s can be made possessive by adding only an ‘ after the s and both are considered correct. For example, the Kennedy family are the Kennedys and their home is Kennedy’s house. The Jones family are the Joneses and their home is Jones’s House or Jones’ House.
And I note for the record I had to look it up and so expect I (and others) often make an error in the standard rules. So Hay, Hays, and Hayes have exceptions to the rules (ending in y or s) which are probably often not followed. And the rules of grammar as we know them weren’t in place until the 1900’s (the King’s English and Modern English Usage). Also, levels of education varied greatly from 1700-1900 and although many could read or write it wasn’t at the levels of knowledge we know today, many being educated at grade school levels only into the 1900’s. So our present day high school education tendency to err on making the surname plural or possessive is greatly increased in prior generations.
I note on the Scottish Clan map that Hay is used for both the highland and lowland (border) branches of the Clan. But Clan Hay (following today’s grammar rules would be the Hays and Duns Castle would be Hays’ (or Hay’s) Duns Castle. But absent a written record with todays proper grammar the use of Hays/Hays’/Hayes/Hays’s for both plural and possessive variations of Hay would sound the same. I surmise that Hays came into common language use with written spellings of Hays and Hayes being used interchangeably for plural and possessive of Clan Hay peoples and places.
While delaHaye was being anglicized into Hay in Scotland there was an Irish Clan “O hAodha” which was anglicized into Hayes (in County Cork O’Hea and Ulster Hughes). Scotland, Ulster, and Ireland all had migrations to America over time and so we can expect Hay, Hays, Hayes from Scotland; Hays and Hayes from Ulster; and Hayes from Ireland with each recorded with whatever spelling suited the writer to match the spoken. A good example is U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes who is listed on the aforementioned Irish Hayes as a famous person but his own genealogy research shows his Hayes ancestors coming to America from Scotland in the 1600’s with no Hays or Hay spelling in the recorded line.
I did find one mention that the spelling “Hays” was used by the Clan Hay who were Presbyterian and migrated to America due to religious strife in the early 1700’s (Ulstermen). It was told through 3 generations to an author (I lost specific reference in a computer crash) and thus hearsay. Pennsylvania Genealogies (1886) by William Henry Egle lists (p. 286) the Hay or Hays Family of PA noting Hay, Hays, or Hayes derive from DelaHaye and “The American branch of the family write it Hays, as a general thing.”
The US Census records (1850 and beyond) used in support of my Hays line spell it “H-A-Y-S” with notations they could read and write, and thus provided a proper spelling. Grave markers give us better support for the spelling as it is “H-A-Y-S” and it is expected that correct spelling would be of utmost importance on these.
I think we can say beyond a reasonable doubt that the Ulstermen John Hays and Patrick Hays (and their relations in PA and VA in the early 1700’s) preferred the spelling “H-A-Y-S”, but there were variations and “H-A-Y-E-S” was used, including by some of their descendants officially. We have reasonable cause to believe that Ulster Presbyterian Scots used “H-A-Y-S” as a preferred spelling and a suspicion that this may have been used in the lowlands and Ulster to distinguish the Clan Hay Presbyterians.
The title is correct for the plural of Hay, Hays, and Hayes but I note in closing the proper “s” or “es” grammar rules are not often followed even today. I am learning that most questions of genealogy and history of the Hays opens up two more questions which requires more research to answer. But it is the journey which is the adventure, nor arriving at the destination.