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Jessie Margaret Edmondston Saxby (30 June 1842 – 27 December 1940) was a Scottish writer and folklorist from Unst, one of the Shetland. She also had political interests and was a suffragette.
By her own admission, Saxby received little formal education.
Henry Saxby, a London born ornithologist and doctor, became Saxby's husband on 16 December 1859. The couple had six children but their only daughter died when an infant. They lived on Unst and Henry was a partner in his father-in-law's medical practice until 1871 when poor health necessitated a move to Edinburgh. The following year, in 1872, the family re-located to Inveraray but Henry died aged 37 on 4 September 1873. As a widow with a family to support, Jessie had to rely on the income from her writing and returned to Edinburgh for 17 years before finally moving back to Unst in 1890.
Thomas Edmondston Saxby (1869-1952), also a physician who lived and worked at Halligarth, and an ornithologist, was their son.
→Jessie Saxby wrote an appreciation of the life of Dr Joseph Bell, who is known as the prototype for Sherlock Holmes, as well as for his distinguished medical career. Her book is titled "Joseph Bell...an appreciation by an old friend", and it was published by Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier in 1913. At the end of the book, Jessie signs her name, Jessie M.E. Saxby, and it follows these words: "As he had lived, Joe Bell died, brave, self-forgetful, upheld by the Divine...I shall not see his like again." See←
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