An illegitimate child, possibly of George Savile, marquess of Halifax (1633-95), Henry Carey earned a living as a writer of burlesques, poems, and occasionally music. A protégé of Addison, who liked his "Sally in our Alley," Carey succeeded best when he was most amusing. His "Namy-Pamby," which sends up the childish manners of the poet Ambrose Phillips, is also a valued early historical record of nursery rhymes. Impoverished, Carey died October 4, 1743, 56 years old, at his house in Clerkenwell, hanging himself and leaving behind a wife, Sarah, and four children.

• Aspden, Suzanne. “Carey, Henry (1687-1743).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
• Carey, Henry. Poems on Several Occasions. London: J. Kent, 1713. 1078.g.6 British Library. 2nd edn. 1720. 1076.g.40 British Library. 3rd edn. London: E. Say, 1729. 11632.e.70 British Library
• --. The Poems of Henry Carey. Ed. Frederick T. Wood. London: Scholartis Press, 1920. PR 3339 C23A17 Robarts Library
• Hudson, William Henry. A Quiet Corner in a Library. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1968. PR 99 .H835 St. Michael's College