Susan Elizabeth Gay

Susan Elizabeth Gay (born 12 January 1845 in Oswestry, died 17 January 1918 in Crill, Budock) ^[1][2] was a chronicler of Falmouth in a book published in 1903 entitled Old Falmouth.^[3][4]

Miss Susan Gay was the daughter of William Gay (1812–1868) and his wife, Charlotte Grace Elizabeth, born Pedersen ^[2] and the granddaughter of William Gay, the last Falmouth Agent of the General Post Office Packet Service (Old Falmouth, pp. 139–140, 204-206),^[3] who retired in 1842.

She was a friend of the Fox family of Falmouth, who provided some of her material (pp. 149–160, 219-222)^[3] and illustrations (George Croker Fox p. 149, Anna Maria Fox p. 151, Robert Were Fox FRS p. 153, Joseph Fox, Senior p. 159). Wilson Fox helped her with the Chronology.^[3] In her preface, she acknowledges help from them and other Falmouth notables. She ends the preface

"I should mention that this little work is simply a Collecteana, and has no greater pretension". page x.

Miss Gay was also a writer on Theosophy, sometimes using the non-de-plume "Libra".^[5]

She was one of the speakers at a celebration of the thirty-second anniversary of Modern Spiritualism on Sunday 4 April 1880, advertised in The Times.^[6]

In 1910 or 1911, she was interviewed by Walter Evans-Wentz concerning folktales heard from the peasants around her home at Crill, near Falmouth, published in The Fairy-faith in Celtic Countries.^[7][8]

Publications

• Harry’s Big Boots. A fairy tale, for “Small Folke” ... With illustrations by the author, drawn on wood by P. Skelton.London, 1873.^[9]
• Woman and a Future Life, London, Houlston & Sons, 1876.
• Womanhood in its eternal aspect. Reprinted from Modern Thought, Dec. 15, 1879. pp. 4., 1879.
• Spiritualistic Sanity: A reply to Dr. F. Winslow’s “Spiritualistic Madness.”. London, Falmouth, 1879.^[10]
• John William Fletcher, clairvoyant. A biographical sketch, with some chapters on the present era and religious reform. E. W. Allen: London, 1883.^[11]
• The spirit of the New Testament, or The revelation of the mission of Christ. By a woman, London: E. W. Allen, 1885.
• The Parish Church of Falmouth. Falmouth : F.I. Earle, 1897.
• Falmouth and Flushing a Hundred Years Ago : Some Extracts From James Silk Buckingham's Autobiography / By a Falmouth Resident. Falmouth : Printed by Earle, 1895.
• Commanders in H.M. Packet Service from 1688 to 1852 : reprinted from the published record at Falmouth / preface by S. E. G. [Miss Gay]. Falmouth : J.H.Lake, 1898.
• Old Falmouth : the story of the town from the days of the Killigrews to the earliest part of the 19th century. London : Headley Brothers, 1903.^[12]
• Old Falmouth, [new abridged ed.] Penzance : Oakmagic Publications, 2000. ISBN 1-901163-59-8 Notes: This is a considerably shortened version of the original work. Originally published: London : Headley Brothers, 1903.
• The mystic and occult knowledge of the early Christian Church : an address given in Falmouth on May 9th 1913 / by Susan E. Gay. London : Theosophical Society, 1913? ^[13]

Parish records transcripts

• [Truro. St. Mary Church]. The register of marriages, baptisms and burials of the parish of St. Mary, Truro, Cornwall A.D. 1597 to 1837 / transcribed and edited by Susan E. Gay, Mrs. Howard Fox, Stella Fox, H. Tapley-Soper,.^[14] parts 1 and 2, Exeter : Devon and Cornwall Record Society, 1940.
• [Falmouth. King Charles the Martyr]. The register of baptisms, marriages and burials of the parish of Falmouth in the County of Cornwall, 1663-1812. Part II, (burials) / transcribed and edited by Susan Elizabeth Gay and Mrs. Howard Fox, Exeter : Devon and Cornwall Record Society, 1915.

References