Michael J. Rochford - Georgian Recipes and Remedies: A Country Ladys Household Handbook

1. Nostell Priory by J.P. Neale, drawn in 1829, from Views of the Seats, Mansions, Castles etc. of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

To Ruth and Christopher Brooks

Thank you for all your love, kindness and support

A Country Ladys Household Handbook

Compiled and edited from original source material

by

Michael J. Rochford

with illustrations by

Peter Brears and Caroline Rochford

First published in Great Britain in 2020 by

Pen & Sword History

An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Michael J. Rochford 2020

ISBN 9781526727299

eISBN 9781526727305

Mobi ISBN 9781526727312

The right of Michael J. Rochford to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library.

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I must thank Helen at Wakefield History Centre for granting me permission to transcribe Sabine Winns receipts, which form part of the fabulous archive of the Winn family of Nostell Priory. My thanks also go to all the staff at Wakefield for their continued assistance and support whenever I visit.

Richard Knowles of Rickaro Books continues to support my projects (not least by stocking my books!) and has sourced useful publications that have assited in my research. He has also offered suggestions for the title of the present work. Id especially like to thank Richard for his introduction to his great friend, Peter Brears, the food history expert, who has helped enormously with the creation of this book.

I am indebted to Peter for his kind involvement in the project. His book Gentlewomans Kitchen: Great Food in Yorkshire 16501750 (published by Wakefield Historical Society in 1984) was extremely useful when researching old recipes and ingredients. And I am very grateful to him for reading this manuscript and offering insightful comments and improvements, especially for pointing out that Id transcribed one ingredient as pounded finger when (hopefully) Id meant pounded ginger ! The exceptional drawings and accompanying captions he has contributed have greatly enhanced the book.

Linne Matthews, my untiring, friendly editor at Pen and Sword, has worked with skill and dedication on all of my books and is always on hand to offer sage advice (and help with other herbs and spices as well).

To Caroline, my wife, fellow researcher and author: thank you for transcribing so many of the receipts in this book, designing the titles and for sharing your knowledge and your own research material. And of course, your stunning illustrations are extremely welcome additions to these chapters. On a personal note, youre such a modest, loving and generous soul that you will never come to realise how much of an indulgent, kind wife you are to me and what a wonderful mother you are to our two beautiful children, Lucy and Faye. The three of you inspire everything I do.

Image 1, 3, 4 from authors archives.

Image 2 by kind permission of Archives cantonales vaudoises, Eb132/5 page .

Images 5, 6, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 by Wellcome Collection, London. Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0.

Images 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23 by Peter Brears.

Image 26 is courtesy of the British Library www.bl.uk . No known copyright restrictions.

Front and back cover images and all titles and other illustrations by Caroline Rochford.

W hile researching my volume on Nostell Priory, the Palladian mansion in West Yorkshire, for the Tales from the Big House series (published in 2018 by Pen and Sword), I spent time at Wakefield History Centre viewing documents from the vast Nostell Priory collection. Within this archive are two Georgian receipt books containing hundreds of old recipes for food and drink, and also dozens of remedies for the ills of the day, afflicting both man and beast. Receipt books were popular among the elite at this time and these volumes were compiled by Dame Sabine Winn, the Swiss wife of the 5th Baronet of Nostell, Sir Rowland Winn.