English recipe book

Collection of medical, veterinary, culinary and household recipes in several 18th and 19th century hands. The manuscript is written in two distinct parts: an 18th century section occupying pp. [1] to 70 and 171 to the end (written from the back of the volume); and an early 19th century section occupying pp. 71 to 115. Although the latter section is in a single hand the former has several contributors, the last of which (flyleaf + pp. 18-19, 42-43, 51-52, 67-68) was evidently writing in the second half of the eighteenth century, as one recipe (p. 51) is described as 'Taken by Mr Horatio Walpole, late Lord Walpole' [Horatio Walpole (1678-1757), 1st Baron Walpole]. Few medical authorities are mentioned, apart from Sir Benjamin Wrench [MD, 1665-1747], pp. 16, 41.

Early 18th century - early 19th century

1 volume 1 volume: approx 310 x 200 mm. 1 leaf + [1]-176 pp. (pp. 10-11, 27-28, 33-34, 45-46, 49-50, 69-70, 94-98, 107-108, and 155-156 wanting) + 2 leaves. Pp. 116-170 blank. Original limp vellum covers, rebacked. Front cover inscribed: 'Mrs Elizabeth Godfrey's Book of Receipts 1715'.

Purchased from Byass Rare Books, Bristol, May 2014.

It is tempting to identify the Elizabeth Godfrey who signed her name on the front cover of this manuscript in 1715 with the wife of the chemist Ambrose Godfrey the younger (c. 1685-1756), but there seems to be no internal evidence to confirm such an attribution. Elizabeth is presumably the author of the earliest recipes in the volume, which occupy pp. [1] to 8. Most of the early eighteenth-century entries however are in a different hand, that of one Robert Gossen, who identifies himself on p. 37. Nothing is known about this person, although he may have been related to Elizabeth Godfrey, as both describe recipes as being approved by a certain 'H. G.' (pp. 8, 15, 24, 28, 35), who was perhaps a common family member. None of the hands in this manuscript appear to match that of the Elizabeth Godfrey who identifies herself in 1686 as the author of MS.2535. The latter was presumably therefore a different person altogether.