Place of Origin

United States ➔ Virginia ➔ Mechanicsville

Date of Composition

ca. 1744

Description

This cookbook of 98 numbered pages and dated 1744 on the final page is believed to have been written by Eleanor Parks Shelton (ca. 1707-1779). She was a daughter of William Parks, who founded the Virginia Gazette and who published, at Williamsburg, Virginia, an American edition of the 1727 English cookbook The Compleat Housewife, by Eliza Smith. This was the first cookbook printed in America. Around 1727, Eleanor married John Armistead Shelton (ca. 1705-1777) and moved with him to his home Rural Plains, in today's Mechanicsville, Virginia. The couple had at least eight children, including Sarah (1736-1775), who became the wife of Patrick Henry. John Shelton died during the revolutionary Battle of Brandywine in Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia.