Items
Details
Title
Recipes and remedies of Mary Welby [manuscript], ca. 1712.
Created/published
Denton Manor, Lincolnshire, ca. 1712.
Description
19 leaves, 260 pages ; 30 x 20 x 35 cm
Associated name
Welby, Mary, 1682-1759.
Note
This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. The "FAST ACC" number is a temporary call number. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
Paginated from 19 to verso of loose endleaf (160) but many are blank: 136-141, 143-150, 152-236, 240-242, 251-260.
Paginated from 19 to verso of loose endleaf (160) but many are blank: 136-141, 143-150, 152-236, 240-242, 251-260.
Genre/form
Manuscripts (documents)
Cookbooks.
Cookbooks.
Place of creation/publication
Great Britain -- England.
Item Details
Call number
FAST ACC 272513
Folger-specific note
Ordered from Dean Cooke, Manuscripts & Rare Books, D9535, 2021-10-06, Cat. "First words: catalogue of manuscripts & rare books to be exhibited by Dean Cooke Rare Books Ltd on stand A7 at the firsts fair Saatchi Gallery London 21 - 24 October 2021", item #22. From dealer's description: "WELBY, Mary (1682-1759) Early 18th-century manuscript book of recipes and remedies. [Denton Manor, Lincolnshire. Circa 1712. Dated in text]. Folio (322 mm x 203 mm x 35 mm). Pages inconsistently numbered. First 19 leaves numbered to rectos, thereafter, numbered to both sides up to page 260. Of these, 93 pages contain recipes, and there is an index of 8 pages at the end. Watermark: Lion. Similar to Haewood 3136-3144: all late 17th-century Dutch and English papers, but no exact match. Countermark: ‘DP’; probably Dirk Pieterzoon de Jong of the ‘De Wisser’ mill, whose paper carried the mark ‘DP’. Contemporary vellum. Stain to outer margins of later leaves. Faded inscription to front board reads, “Recipes Books / of all Kinds”. Provenance: inscribed to front endpaper “Mary Welby 1712” within flourishes. This manuscript was bought at Sneinton Market in the mid20th century. The previous owner was told it been written by Mary Welby who resided in the neighbouring county of Lincolnshire. A list of all the recipes is available on request. Mary Welby’s folio manuscript entitled “Recipes Books of all Kinds” is a superb example of the dayto-day maintenance of a busy household. It provides often detailed examples of the health and sustenance of an affluent rural household in early modern England. Through the plentiful remedies and culinary recipes, we learn of their primary health concerns, but we also gain a glimpse into their leisure interests through the highly unusual inclusion of instructions for producing reverse glass painting. The Welbys of Denton Manor were a wealthy Lincolnshire family. Mary Welby, née Towers (1682-1759), was the daughter and heiress of Thomas Towers of Haddenham, Cambridgeshire. In 1705, she married Richard Welby (1656-1713) of Denton Manor. At the time of her marriage, she would have been around 21 years old and her husband would have been 49. In the 6 years of their marriage, they had 5 children together. Her husband died, according to Mary, “after a tedious sickness which he bore with exemplary patience”. A year after the death of her husband she erected a magnificent memorial to his memory in nearby Denton Church. This impressive monument was sculpted by Thomas Green of Camberwell (c. 1659-c. 1730). It features a bold, free-standing, life-size statue of Welby below which she listed his virtues, calling him “Ye Best of Husbands”. Mary Welby also appears to have had a strong social conscience and a belief in the importance of broadening access to education beyond the likes of her own prosperous family. In 1715 she endowed a local school for 30 pupils from less affluent members of the community. The building, which was completed in 1720 and still stands today (although it is now a private residence), bears an inscription above the door: “Learn to know God and Thyself”. Although this act of beneficence was not in itself unique at the time, it is interesting to note that the school was open to girls as well as boys (albeit at a ratio of 6 to 24 in boys’ favour). The majority of the manuscript appears to have been written by Mary Welby, who writes in a neat, sloping, italic hand. One cannot be entirely certain whether it is her hand that changes over time or there is another hand that comes in later; she writes most of the first section of 73 pages, with a few additions to the lower sections of pages in a different hand. This second hand starts the next section which, after a gap of over 30 blank pages, begins on page 106. From this point on, they write consecutively, although still with the overwhelming majority by Mary Welby, who contributes approximately 200 recipes and remedies overall, while the second scribe adds around 18 (a complete list will be included with the manuscript)."
Folger accession
272513