Edith Carey

Day 3 of lockdown and I’m quite happy to stay put with the big book of Guernsey People. So today’s person is...

Edith Frances Carey (1864-1935)
The eminent antiquarian and folklore expert
This illustrious Guernseywoman was born at Morar Gwalior in India in 1864, the great great granddaughter (through her mother) of the gifted artist and botanist Joshua Gosselin. During her childhood her parents returned to Guernsey, settling at Le Vallon, and she became one of the first generation of pupils at Ladies College.
When Edith was in her early 20s her parents stopped her from marrying the love of her life so she began studying local history. She was encouraged by Sir Edgar MacCullogh and after his death edited and published his celebrated Guernsey Folklore. This was followed in 1904 by her well known work The Channel Islands. 
Edith was a stalwart of La Société Guernesiais; and indeed it was her suggestion that this name was adopted rather than the previous cumbersome ‘The Guernsey Society for Natural Science and Local Research’
It is not unknown for intellectuals to have endearing oddities of character and in the case of Edith Carey, such a quirk consisted in a firm belief in witchcraft; on which she made herself an authority, collecting songs and stories concerned with this topic from the country parishes, whose lore provides so rich a source of accounts of the black art.
Edith Carey died on 29 May 1935.