Eliza Gutch
Eliza Gutch (née Hutchinson) (1840-1931) was an English author, contributor to Notes and Queries., and founding member of the Folklore Society. She made immense contributions to the establishment of folklore and dialect studies.
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.
On 22 January 1868 she married York solicitor John James Gutch. 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. 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.
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