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Cynthia Cary

American socialite and art collector (1884-1966)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ5200150
Source-derived summary

Cynthia Burke Cary (née Roche, previously Burden; 10 April 1884 – 18 December 1966) was a British-American socialite and art collector from Newport, Rhode Island.

Life and work

She was born on 10 April 1884 in London to James Roche, 3rd Baron Fermoy (1852–1920), an Irish peer who was a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons, and Frances Ellen Work (1857–1947), an American heiress and socialite. Her brothers were Maurice Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy, the maternal grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the Hon. Francis Burke Roche.

In 1904, Good Housekeeping magazine described her as among the members of New York's Four Hundred (see The Four Hundred (1892)) who were daring and skilful automobilists. Roche was also recognised as a skilled tennis player and horserider.

In 1908, Roche became a naturalised United States citizen.

Personal life

On 11 June 1906, Roche married Arthur Scott Burden. Burden was the grandson of industrialist Henry Burden and President of the family business Burden Iron Works. His career, however, was significantly impaired after two horse falls, the second of which seriously aggravated the injuries incurred from the first.

Editorial summary

“Cynthia Cary” enters the record as american socialite and art collector (1884-1966). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Cynthia, Cary and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1884, 1966, 1852, 1920—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1884-04-10. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Cynthia, Cary and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Cynthia Cary” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Cynthia, Cary and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5200150. VIAF identifies the subject as 22061212. The Library of Congress control number is nr99010785. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1884, 1966, 1852 and 1920.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Cynthia Cary”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Cynthia Cary primary sources, Cynthia Cary archive and Cynthia research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Cynthia Cary” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.