January 12th Susan Elizabeth Gay (Death)

Susan Elizabeth Gay (1845 – 1918) became a renowned chronicler of Falmouth and was particularly noted for her volume Old Falmouth (1903) which told of the town from its earliest days when dominated by the Killigrew family of gentry and pirates. 

The daughter of the last Falmouth Agent of the General Post Office Packet Service, Gay was a friend of the wealthy Fox family of Falmouth who provided much historical material and illustrations.  Significant members of the Fox family include Caroline Fox (May 24th), Robert Were Fox the Elder (July 5th)Robert Barclay Fox (July 24th)Robert Were Fox the Younger (July 25th), Alfred Fox (September 9th), Charles Masson Fox (November 9th), Charles Fox (December 22nd) and Caroline’s sister, Anna Maria Fox.

Susan Gay was also a writer on theosophy, the collection of philosophies established in 1875 which maintains that a knowledge of God may be achieved through spiritualism and direct intuition. Also interested in Cornish folklore she included a collection of traditional tales she had heard from Cornish people in ‘The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries’.





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