Carey was said to be the son of George Sa­ville, Mar­quis of Hal­ifax, and a school­mis­tress. He stu­died mu­sic in Lon­don un­der Olaus Lin­nert and Fran­ces­co Gem­i­ni­a­ni. His best re­mem­bered mu­sic may be his song “Sal­ly in Our Al­ley,” but his chief tal­ent was lit­er­ary, as he wrote plays, bur­lesques, and op­er­as. His works in­clude:

• The Contrivances, 1729 (trans­formed into a bal­lad op­era from an ear­li­er work)
• Chrononhotonthologos, 1734
• The Honest York­shire­man, 1735
• Nancy, or the Part­ing Lov­ers, 1739 (al­so known as The Press Gang and True Blue)
• The Dragon of Want­ley
• The Mu­sical Cen­tu­ry (Lon­don: 1737-40)

Sources

Music

1. Carey’s Sur­rey