Manuscript Location

Place of Origin

Date of Composition

Description

This English cookbook of approximately 260 written pages is in four series: (1) a collection of 229 numbered recipes, followed by an index; (2) a collection of 47 numbered recipes, also followed by an index (which lists recipes numbered 48 through 53, which are missing from the book as now constituted); (3) a collection of 64 numbered recipes, without an index; (4) and approximately 60 pages of unnumbered recipes. The first series appears to be in a single neat hand. The second series appears to be in the same hand as the first, as does most of the third series, with the exception of Recipe No. 53 (digital image 197), "To make a Custard Pudding without Cream," and perhaps a few others. The fourth and final clutch of recipes is in multiple hands.

Following the last recipe of the first series is written: "The above receipts from Lady Bradshaighs Book." The library believes this note refers to Elizabeth (Pennington) Bradshaigh (d.1695), the wife of Sir Roger Bradshaigh of Haigh. It is possible that some of the recipes in this series may have been handed down from Elizabeth Bradshaigh, but most of the recipes are manifestly of the eighteenth century. (To cite two obvious examples, the particular sort of "Trifle" (#82) outlined in this section is unlikely to be earlier than 1720 and "To make Curry" (#163) almost certainly postdates 1730.) The more likely author of these recipes is Lady Dorothy Bradshaigh (1705-1785), a correspondent of Samuel Richardson, the author of the famed epistolary novel Clarissa. Further substantiating authorship by Dorothy Bradshaigh are the numerous recipes in this series attributed to "Lady Derby," who is surely Dorothy Bradshaigh's half-sister Elizabeth Hesketh (1694-1776), who also corresponded with Richardson and who was close to Dorothy. The second series of the book, likewise, bids fair to be of the mid-eighteenth century, with its recipes for Lemon Cheese Cakes (#11), Almond Soup (#37), Muffins (#39), and Picklets (#44). The third series includes a recipe for Tomato Soup (#11), which is unlikely to be earlier than 1760 and is probably at least a bit later.

It bears noting that the inside front cover of the notebook bears the following inscription: Haigh Sepr: 1779. The Bradshaigh baronetcy terminated in 1779, with the death of Roger Bradshaigh, 4th baronet of Haigh Hall. The inscription is quite possibly in the principal hand of the manuscript.