Eliza Gutch

Eliza Gutch (née Hutchinson) (1840-1931) was an English author, contributor to Notes and Queries,[1] and founding member of the Folklore Society. She made immense contributions to the establishment of folklore and dialect studies.

Eliza Gutch
Born(1840-07-15)15 July 1840
Little Gonerby-cum-Manthorpe, Lincolnshire, England
Died17 March 1931(1931-03-17) (aged 90)
Holgate Lodge, York, England
OccupationWriter, folklorist
NationalityEnglish
Period19th century
GenreFolklore

Personal life

Gutch was born on 15 July 1840, at Manthorpe Lodge in Little Gonerby-cum-Manthorpe, Lincolnshire, as Eliza Hutchinson. Her father, Simon Hutchinson, was a land agent in Little Gonerby.[2]

On 22 January 1868 she married York solicitor John James Gutch.[1] They had four children: Bertha (b. 1869), John (b. 1870), Wilfrid (b. 1871), and Clement (1875-1908). She was widowed in 1881.

Career

Gutch had an abiding interest in the history and folklore of the region of England in which she lived. She was a founder member of the English Dialect Society in 1873, and a prolific contributor to the journal Notes and Queries under the pseudonym "St Swithin", a reference to her date of birth.[1] It was from her suggestion in a February 1876 issue of Notes and Queries that the Folklore Society was formed in 1878, with Gutch as a founder member.[1]

Her knowledge of folklore was utilised by Joseph Wright in his English Dialect Dictionary, to which she contributed her findings on the folklore of both Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.[1] Gutch herself collected the materials for, and edited three volumes of, the County Folklore series, and wrote a number of shorter articles on folklore.[3]

Eliza Gutch was the last private owner of Holgate Windmill, and her children sold the Mill on her death to the City of York Council for preservation as a historic site. She died at Holgate Lodge on 17 March 1931.

Works
  • County Folklore: Examples of Printed Folk-Lore Concerning the North Riding of Yorkshire, York and the Ansty (1901)
  • Mrs Gutch and Mabel Peacock, County Folklore: Examples of Printed Folklore Concerning Lincolnshire (1908)
  • County Folklore: Examples of Printed Folk-Lore Concerning the East Riding of Yorkshire (1912)

References
  1. Jacqueline Simpson (Editor), Steve Roud (Editor) (2003). A Dictionary of English Folklore. Oxford University Press
  2. Peacock, Max. The Peacock Lincolnshire word books, 1884-1920, Barton on Humber : Scunthorpe Museum Society, 1997, p.8. ISBN 0-907098-04-5
  3. "In Memoriam: [Mrs.] Eliza Gutch, (1840-1931)". Folklore. 41 (3): 301. JSTOR 1255895.
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