George Alfred Carthew

George Alfred Carthew FSA (20 June 1807 – 21 October 1882) was an English antiquarian, local historian, and genealogist, though he worked as a solicitor for most of his life.

[2] He grew up as the eldest of three sons, rarely attending school owing to his family's financial hardships, instead working as an apprentice in his father's office.

Carthew mastered their contents to such a degree that in 1837, he correctly addressed several errors in their interpretation in a letter to the senior antiquarian John Adey Repton, published in The Gentleman's Magazine.

Carthew was a frequent contributor to the society's journal, Norfolk Archaeology, publishing, among other papers, an article on East Dereham church in the first volume, and extracts from the antiquarian Peter Le Neve's diary (which had passed through his family after Thomas Martin of Palgrave, husband of Le Neve's widow, had gifted it to his grandfather) accompanied by his extensive genealogical notes.

[2] After Carthew's death, two unfinished works of his were prepared for publications by his close friend Augustus Jessopp: A History of the Parishes of West and East Bradenham (1883) and The Origin of Family or Sur-Names (1883).

[1] Carthew's primary antiquarian work was The Hundred of Launditch and Deanery of Brisley in the County of Norfolk, published in three parts between 1877 and 1879, near the end of his life.