Recipe book [manuscript], between 1719 and 1736.
Items
Details
Title
Recipe book [manuscript], between 1719 and 1736.
Description
1 volume.
Note
This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
Condition
6 loose items (recipes) at front.
Genre/form
Manuscripts (documents)
Cookbooks.
Cookbooks.
Place of creation/publication
Great Britain -- England.
Item Details
Call number
FAST ACC 272601
Folger-specific note
From dealer's description: "[Mary Finch, Countess of Aylesford] Cookery Manuscript n.p. c1735. Eighteenth century manuscript book containing 304 recipes for food (172pp) and a further 120 medicinal recipes (85pp). 257pp of manuscript in total. 189x155mm. Six further leaves of manuscript recipes loosely inserted. Bound in contemporary white vellum, the title "Cookery & Confection" in later handwriting to spine. Upper cover has, in slightly faded contemporary handwriting, the title "Cookery & Confectionary" and the lower cover has the title "Medicinal", also in a contemporary hand. Some cracking to the joint with the upper cover and wear to front edge of the same, marking to the vellum as usual but a nice binding in very good condition. Internally near fine save for some foxing and browning with all recipes clear and legible. The first page is a list of expenses under the title "Lieut Genrl Webbs Patent" and records entries such as "Bill signed by the Queen - 25-10-0" and "Private Great Seal - 2-00-0". It is unclear how this relates to the main content of the book which is introduced on the following leaf with the title "A List of the Huswifes contained in this Books" (sic). There follows a list of sixty-eight names few of whom conform to the generally accepted notion of a housewife. We find Lady Dowager Sunderland, Lady Bingley, Lady Orrery, Lady St Johns and the Duchess of Portsmouth. A few men are also included in the list of contributors: Lord Chesterfield and the Bishop of Ely. The name most fully described is "Lady Mary Finch my Lord Aylesfords Daughter son to the Countess Dowager of Aylesford". The use of the first-person singular possessive strongly suggests that the writer is the wife of Lord Aylesford. A close study of the Finch/Aylesford family trees identifies only one Countess Dowager living at the same time as a Lady Mary Finch who is also a daughter of Lord Aylesford. We are, therefore, confident that the compiler of this collection of recipes from grand households is Mary Finch (née Fisher) who married Heneage Finch (then Lord Guernsey and the son of the first Earl of Aylesford, the great statesman and lawyer and the son of the Earl of Nottingham) in 1712. Their daughter Mary was born in 1717 and Finch inherited the Aylesford Earldom in 1719 (at which point his mother became the Dowager Countess - she died in 1743). In 1736, Mary married William Howard (son of Lord and Lady Andover). As she was Lady Mary Finch between 1719 and 1736, this dates the collection to some point between these years and almost certainly, given the social purpose of the book, towards the end of this period, when Mary was in the marriage market. Although the prospective mother-in-law, Lady Andover is not mentioned in the list of "Huswifes", she does contribute a recipe - "To Dress a Leg of Veal". Lady Dartmouth tells us how to make onion soup, Lady Bingley creates Sugar of Roses, Lady Nottingham makes Raisin Wine, Lady Essex Mostyn explains how to Make Hams and Lady Halifax offers us White Veal Collops. After all this, we might be grateful for Lady Thanet's recipe for The Hysterick Water. It is clear however that the recipes, delicious though they sound, provide only a part of the purpose of this book for it is striking how many of the names are related to each other and, more importantly are families into which the Finches were married or would marry. What Mary Finch, the Countess of Aylesford, was collecting here was not different ways of making cake but a network of social contacts and potential marriage partners for members of her family. But, as the Finches had connections to Court, other aristocratic families would, presumably, have been only too keen to engage in a bit of recipe swapping with Lady Aylesford whose aunt by marriage (Lady Nottingham) had been a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Mary II. Among Lady Nottingham's contributions to this fascinating book is an explanation of "the method used in making ye Blanc Manger for King William". Rarely can a wobbly pudding have been freighted with so much social capital." Ordered from Voewood Rare Books D9447, 2021-03-03. Catalogue issue 2, item 3428.
Folger accession
272601