Haywood's whereabouts and activities following the collapse of The Parrot are, as usual, obscure. By 1749 she was living in lodgings in Durham Yard, just south of the Strand, but it is not known when she took up residence in this possibly insalubrious location. Epistles for the Ladies, her third major political periodical, was launched mid-November 1748 with a release date intended to coincide with the opening of the parliamentary season. Its editor is right to say that ‘political and religious concerns are never far from the author's mind’, but this barely scratches the surface of the intricate engagement with political themes in this work, which rethinks from a distinctively female point of view some of the ideas about national renewal set forth in Bolingbroke's The Idea of a Patriot King. In Haywood's re-envisioning of Bolingbroke, the hope of Patriot regeneration rests with the ladies. The innovative feminism of Epistles for the Ladies is just one reason this carefully orchestrated interplay of epistolary voices stands, arguably, as Haywood's most impressive achievement as a political writer.

Prepublication notices give some indication of what was to come. The first announcement, from 29 October 1748, is placed in the usual promotional channel, the Whitehall Evening Post, where it takes the form of ‘An Address to the Ladies’ signed by the ‘Authors’ of The Female Spectator. The notice, which occupies the lead position, features a woodblock capital letter in which a trumpet-bearing man on horseback provides a visual echo of Haywood's signature visual emblem, the figure of Fame. Epistles for the Ladies is the product of popular demand (‘It would look too much like Vanity to mention the Number of Letters sent to us, requesting a Continuance of the FEMALE SPECTATOR’), and the same team that brought readers The Female Spectator proudly offer this ‘Second Undertaking’.