John MacDougall Hay (23 October 1880 – 10 December 1919)^[1] was a Scottish novelist.

He was born and grew up in Tarbert, Argyll. He graduated in 1900 with an M.A. from the University of Glasgow. He was initially a school teacher in Stornaway, but then became a Church of Scotland minister. He was the father of Sheena Campbell Hay (1911–1987) and George Campbell Hay, the Scottish Gaelic poet.^[1]

He is mainly known for his novel Gillespie (1914),^[2][3] set in a fictionalised version of his home town of Tarbert. It received favourable reviews^[4] when it was published in 1914, but was largely forgotten until it was re-discovered in the late 20th century.^[5] He also wrote a second novel Barnacles (1916),^[6][7] and a collection of poems Their Dead Sons (1918).^[8] In the year of his death, he was planning a third novel set in the Church of Scotland and to be entitled The Martyr.^[3]

In poor health for much of his adult life, he died of tuberculosis at the age of only 39.