Lady Anne Kerr manuscript receipt book circa 1674

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This manuscript receipt book was started on January 28, 1674, and (typical of the time) includes recipes for home remedies as well as foods. Each receipt title below has been transcribed without modernization of spelling and also includes the original receipt number given by the author[s]. For more information, see this item's Hamnet record.

Manuscript description

The manuscript is in octavo format, bound in contemporary plain sheepskin with brass catches on the upper cover, with clasps missing. The different hands appear throughout the book in this manner: F. 2-26 cookery recipes. Lady Anne Carr [or Kerr]'s hand (as on the title) takes over halfway through recipe 5 and continues to recipe 50. Recipe 50a is in a semi-literate hand. Then a second hand takes over from Recipe 51-67 & 69-78. There are several layers to this manuscript, which is a testimony both to the circulation of cookery and medical recipes in manuscript and to their continuous use (here the latest addition is dated 1770). There are only two other dates, 1660 (1:41), 1684 (1:78).

Title

Choyce receits collected ^out^ of the book of Receits, of the Lady Vere Wilkinson, [in another hand] Susanna Hixon her booke Jan:28 [in the first hand] begun to be written by the Right Honble the Lady Anne Carr [Kerr] Jan.28. 1673/4

Provenance

Lady Vere Wilkinson

Much of this manuscript's contents are drawn from the receipt book of Lady Vere Wilkinson (c.1622-1708) who was born Lady Vere Ker (Kerr or Carr), daughter of Robert Ker, 1st Earl of Ancram (1578-1654), courtier and politician, and his second wife, Anne, daughter of William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. Lady Vere married (before 1654) Henry Wilkinson, D.D. (1610-75), a presbyterian Church of England clergyman and elected minister. Both Lady Vere and her husband were popular in literary circles. She was the dedicatee of several devotional works and we know she owned a calligraphic manuscript by Esther Inglis (Oxford, Christ Church, MS 180) and a manuscript book of French maxims written by Princess Louise Hollandina--daughter of Frederick I of Bohemia and Elizabeth Stuart (Burke and Ross, p. 156).

Lady Anne Kerr

The most famous Lady Anne Carr (1615-84) was the only child of James I's favorite Sir Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset and Lady Frances Howard, former Countess of Essex, notoriously convicted of the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury in 1613 but pardoned. Lady Anne married William Russell in 1636, later 5th Earl of Bedford but she would have styled herself as the Countess of Bedford. It seems unlikely, however, that this Lady Anne is the author of our manuscript, but may be distantly related to the Kerr family.

It is more likely that Lady Anne Carr (d. 1667 or 1677?; Ker or Kerr) is the writer of the bulk of the first half of the manuscript. She is most likely the daughter and heiress in the line of the second Earl of Lothian. She married in 1630 her fifth cousin once removed William Kerr (c. 1605-75), eldest son of the 1st Earl of Ancram, who was created 1st Earl of Lothian soon after and succeeded his father as 3rd Earl of Ancram 1654. He was Lady Vere's elder half-brother by her father's first wife and thus Lady Anne was her sister-in-law. Lady Vere Wilkinson's mother was also named Anne, however, and there could be an heretofore unnamed sister by that name as well, making it possible that the author of this manuscript Lady Vere's sister, not sister-in-law.

Susanna Hixon

Currently unidentified, Susan[na] Hixon twice writes her name in the manuscript--once on each flyleaf. She dates the first signature Jan[uary] 28 and the second May 17 1674.

Other notable names

The first and second halves, although similar in content, apart from the copied text of two sermons, seem to be unconnected--at least as far as the names of those women (mostly) and men to whom the recipes are attributed which have no overlap, although the name Carr [or Kerr] occurs once in each. The names associated with the various receipts in the first half are consistently more aristocratic than in the second. These names appear as follows


First half: L.A. (1), L.T. (2), Countess of Strafford (11, 15), Marchioness of Dorchester [Lady Catherine Stanley (d. 1678], daughter of the 7th Earl of Derby and wife of Henry Pierrepont, Marquess of Dorchester (d. 1680)]. (12), Mrs Arthur (14, 45, 49, 50), Lady Paget (23), Mrs Evelyn [?Mary (c. 1635-1709), wife of John Evelyn] (24), Mrs Lock, the Countess of Lincoln's Gentlewoman (25, 36, 44), Mrs Carr [?or Kerr] (27), Mrs Popham (28), Lady Trevor (32), Dorothy Harington (32, 47, 48), Countess of Lincoln [Elizabeth (Killigrew) Clinton (d. 1677), wife of Francis, 6th Earl of Lincoln was dresser to Queen Catherine of Braganza] (34 “for the King”, 37 “for Queen Catharine”, 40 “for the King & Dutchess of York”, 41 (for the Queen 1660”), Mrs Thomson (42), Countess of Exeter (43), Lady Anne Waller [possibly Anne (d. 1661), diarist and patron of clergy, daughter of William, 5th Baron Paget, 3rd wife of Sir William Waller] (55, 59), Mrs Smith (57), Lady Yelverton (58), Lady Winchelsea (60) Mrs Thomey (61-66, 69-70, 72), Countess of Monmouth [?Carey Mordaunt (c. 1658-1709), Countess of Monmouth 1687-97, then Countess of Peterborough] (67- 68), Mrs Boucher (71), Lady Obony [sic] (73), Lady Valentia (74), Lady Weston (76), Lady Loftus (77), Mrs Standish, of Hatton Garden (78),


Second half: Dr. Wright (15), Duke of Richmond (21), Sir Theodore Turquet de Mayeme (22), Mr. Bull (23), Sir William Morton (24), Mrs Foum (25), Mrs Wade 26), Lady Catharine Carr [or Kerr] (28), Dr. Bale (30), Mrs Blackburn (32, 39), Madam Giffard (38, 59, 61, 63), Mr. Mascall (39), Madam Chetwynd (66, 73), Mrs Wilson (86), Lady Misher (107), Lucy Petchmore or Letchmore (108), Mrs Foxe (113), Mrs Walhouse (143).

Receipts

1: To make apricock Biscakes. L. A:
2: to preserve Grapes green in Gelly. L.T.
3: Sugar cakes.
4: to mak little biska[k]es.
5: how to make sugar cakes.
6: another sort of sugar cakes.
7: How to make little Bisket[s]
8: To make Orange bisket.
9: Red Marmalade of Quinces.
10: To make the best cakes of Quince.
11: The Countess of Straffords way of preserving Peaches.
12: The Lady Marquesse of Dorchesters Cakes.
13: Sage Wine.
14: Mrs Arthurs sugar Cakes.
15: The Countesse of Straffords Pease Pottage.
16: Little Cakes.
17: Pippin Jelly as pale as water.
18: Wafers.
19: To preserve Openarses or Medlars.
20: To preserve filbirds.
21: To make a cold posset.
22: To make delicate Furmity.
23: The Lady Pagets Cake.
24: Mrs Evelins receipt to make jelly of John Apples which may be made after Christmas. 
25: To preserve Oranges & Lemons.
26: Mrs Locks way of making Apricock Chipps.
27: Mrs Carrs receit for preserving pipins wch she used to do for Queen Mary every year.
28: Mrs Pophams way to make biskett.
29: To make Jelly of Damons.
30: To dry plumbs.
31: The Lady Trevors way of preserving grapes green in Jelly.
32; To dryplumms naturally. Mrs Harringtons way.
33: To dry Apples the French way.
34: The Countesse of Lincolns way, that she used to preserve and dry Raspas for the King.
35: To make Apricock Cakes the best way.
36: Mrs Locks Chipps of Oranges.
37: The Countesse of Lincolns bisketts which ske used to make for Queen Catharine.
38: To make Angellica Cakes white.
39: The Lady Trevors Almond Jumballs.
40: The Countesse of Lincolns way of makeing pancakes, which she used to make for the King & Dutchesse of York [Anne Hyde, Duchess of York, 1631-71 or Mary of Modena, 1658-1718, Duchess of York 1673-85).
41: The Hartshome Jelly the Countesse of Lincoln used to make for the Queen. 1660.
42: Mrs Thomsons receit for making the best syrrop of Oranges.
43: The Countesse of Exeters way of preserving of Raspas.
44: The Countesse of Lincolns Gentlewoman Mrs Locks, way of drying any plumms or damascens.
45: Mrs Arthurs way of Makeing Violet cakes.
46: To make Mash of Raspas Mrs Dorothy Haringtons way.
47: Mrs Dorothy Harringtons way of Preserving Goosberrys.
48: Mrs Dorothy Harringtons way of Preserving Apricocks.
49: To preserve Quin[c]es whole, Mrs Arthurs way.
50: Mrs Arthurs reciet to make Orange Cakes.
[50a:] To preserve apricocks [in a semi-literate hand].
F. 27: cut-out leaving a stub.
F.28-29: Medical and cookery recipes.
51: An excellent Wallnit water to Expell any poyson or any infection in ye Blood whatsoever or for any sicknes or feavours or any illness in ye stomack most approved.
52: For the scurvey.
53: To draw the Essence of all sorts of smelling flowers, without any fire wch. is the secrett way of the Italians.
54: stewd Pippins.
F.30-38 [numbered 1-13 [i.e. 14]. Cookery recipes
55: 1st To dresse A Carpe.... Lady Anne Waller
56: 2d To dresse A Carpe pike or Tench.... Mrs. Smith.
57: 3d To make Sausages ... Lady Gray.
58: 4th Sausages ... Lady Yelverton.
59: 5th Sausages ... Lady Anne Waller.
60: 6th Pancakes without Butter ... Lady Wincheslea.
61: 7th Very Good Cheesecakes ... Mrs Thomey.
62: 8th A Very Good Pudding ... Mrs Thomey.
63: 9th Lemmon Cream ... Mrs Thomey.
64: 10th White Wine Creame ... Mrs Thomey.
65: 11th Brownbread Cream: ... Mrs Thomey.
66: 12th A White pott... Mrs Thomey.
67: 13 The Countes of Monmo[uth's] Receipt of little plum cakes.
68: [in another hand] The Countes of Monmouths apricock cakes.
69: [in the same hand] An oatmeale puding ... Mrs Thorney.
70: [back to the same hand as 51-67] Almond butter... Mrs Thorney.
71: An Apple Puding ... Mrs Boucher.
72: Thick Cream Cheese ...Mrs Thomey.
73: To Make Court-Fritters ... Lady Obony.
F. 39-46 [unnumbered] Medical and cookery recipes.
74: To souce A Pigg the best way... Lady Valentia.
75: French Pottage ... Lady Valentia.
76: To Dress a Pike ... Lady Weston.
77: A Creame Cheese ... Lady Loftus.
78: [in another hand, probably the same as 68-69] For convulsion fitts wch it has bin experienced comonly to cure by Mrs Standish & others & by her recomended to ye Lord Russells Lady for her son being very apt to them & ill of them June. 1684. it Was a meanes to recover a child yt had bin very subject to them from his birth & ye fitts were come to be constant both at ye full & change of ye moone. & at last were soe violent yt e child lay as stretched out in ye aprehension of all those yt were about it past hopes of Recovery but ye parents being perswaded by one yt had experience of ye effectuallnes of ye use of pigeons against yt distemper did apply them thus. The [?]vent of a Live Pigeon to ye fundament of ye child, & after holding it there for a while - ye child begun to strugle in such an extreame maner yt soe affrighted ye mother yt shee would have had it taken away; but yt an Apothecary standing by whoe had before said there was noe hope of ye childs Life, desired ye pigeon might be continued to ye child it having soe unexpected and strange an operation) the pigeon died in ye applying of it soe another was imediatly aplied in ye like maner wch lived, ye violence of ye distemper being drawne away by ye other pigeon yet was just applied ye child, Recovered, & is now alive. June 1684 & is well & has not had any more Convulsions since this accompt was given by ye father & mother of ye child to Mrs Standish of Hatton garden.
79: [in another hand] This is for a col or consumpsion ...
80: For A Cough
81: For ye stone
82: [in another hand] To pickle oysters
83: [in another hand] To pickle mushrooms.
84: To pickle cowcumbers like mango.
85: [in another hand] A receipt for ye worms.
86: [in another hand] for a Burn.
F. 47 blank
F. 48-49: Index
Then the end of the volume begins again in reverse. Written in a variety of hands, one of which is the same as Recipe 85 in the first part.
4 unnumbered leaves:
F. [l]r: Pen-trial “Ludlam his name” and signatures “Edward Wordsworth / Edward Wordsworth Joh” and inscriptiion “Susan Hixon Her Booke May 17. 1674”. lv: “The Apostle Peter converted at one sermon 3000. now Ministers may preach 3000 times & not convert one”.
F[2]r-[4]r: Short Latin and English biblical notes quotes. A leaf tom out after F2. F[4]v: [title to: A Sermon preached before King James at Trinity Colledge in Cambridge, vis, the Happiness of Peace upon Psalm 144: vis, 15. Happy is that people tht is in such a case, yea happy is that people whose God is ye Lord. By John Staughton Doctor in Divinity somtime Fellow of Emanuell Colledge in Cambridge.
Then pages numbered as 1 -201.
P. 1-10: Text to the sermon as above.
10-13: The Love-sicke spouse. A Sermon preached at St Paule's Cross upon the 5th of Cant[icles]: and ye 8 verse. I charge you, o yee daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my Well-beloved, what shall yee tell him? that I am sick of love. Brief sermon notes, presumably from the texts published posthumously as part of Choice Sermons on selected occasions (1640), STC 23301, and XV. Choice Sermons (1640), STC 23306. The second set of notes probably unfinshed.
P. 14-201: Medical and cookery recipes.
14: To make oyle of seinjons wort [St John's wort].
15: Docter Wrights Cordial Watter good in an ague or feavor.
17: for an ague.
20: Sage wine.
21: The Duke of Richmonds syrrop for a consumption.
22: Sr Theodore Myerns [Sir Theodore Turquet de Mayerne, 1573-1655] drink for a Hectick feavour.
23: Powder for cure and prevention of the Gout,by which it pleased God to recover Mr Bull who had it in every Joynt, and has not had a fit in 26 ears space.
24: Mrs Boltons powder by which she received great benefit for cramps ad wind in the Veins. Sr William Mortons Receit of Aqua Mirabilis.
25: Mrs Fowns Cordiall Water.
26: To cure a Mouth that is black in a feave, & to assuage the dought. Mrs Wades Codiall water good in fitts of th stone.
28: The Magnetick cure of the Yellow Jaundice taught me by the Lady Ctheine Carr. A Cordiall syrrop to purify the blood and liver, good against Melancholy and consumption and faintnesse of spirits, and to help digestion.
30: Dr Bales syrrop of Turnips, good for a cough.
31: for the scurvy.
32: [in a barely literate hand (unfinished)] Ms blakbum feavre cloth uich ms blackbum gave my lady... [see p. 39]
33: The salve called the Gray Salve.
35: For Flooding.
37: A Receipt for ye worme.
38: [in 3 hands] Maam Giffard receipt for cionvulsions. a receipt for eye water if it is a moist eye. To Dye Purple.
39: Mr Mascalls fevar cloth I had from Mrs Blackboum [see p. 32]
40: A good gravy,...
42: How to make an amond puding.
43: To make a very fine geat cake.
45: [in 2 hands] To make Balsom. for a burn in a fleshpart. For a burn in ye face.
46: For Flooding.
47: To preserve Damsons.
48: Gopsberry vinegar.
49: To ke syrrop of clove gillilowers.
51: How to pckle purslom.
53: for a cold, for a consumtion ...
55: To make Goosberry Wine.
57: To make cowslip wine.
59: Madam Giffard plaster for the wormes.
60: For Convulsion fitts.
61: Madm Giffards surfett water. To make vinegar.
62: A pultis for a soare breast.
63: Madm Giffards recept for Elder wine, damson wine [“the worst in the world” added in another hand].
64: a recept for curant wine.
65: To make Birch wine.
66: Madam Chewynds Receipt for Birch wine.
67: To make Lemon wine.
68: To make Elder wine.
[Two leaves torn out]
69: To pott Hare.
70: To coller Eele [another above delete].
71: To coller pig.
72: How to stew a Hare.
73: How to presarve oringes Mdm Chetwynd.
74: To make a seed cake. A ground rice pudding.
75: A carrot pudding, how to pickle sliced cowcumber.
76: To pickle walnuts.
[One leaf tom out]
77: To pickle cowcumbers.
78: To make yellow lemmon cream.
79: To make Flumery. To make a boiled pudding without milk.
80: To make Damson cheese. To preserve Cherries.
81: To make whip sillabubs.
82: To make sack mead.
83: To pickle walnuts.
84: To make scoch collops.
85: To make force meat for ye colops. To make veal collops.
86: A fruite cake. Mrs Wilson.
87: To ice the cake.
88: To make a plain Cake.
89: To make Gingerbread.
90: Calves foot Flummery.
91: Orange cheese cakes.
92: To make a seed cake.
93: Take red cherreys 2 pounds as many Black ... A Cordial.
94: [In a later hand?] To salt Hams to keep long.
96: To candy Angelico.
97: To make cowslip wine.
98: A receipt for raisin wine.
100: cowslip wine.
102: To coller Eeles.
103: To make wigs [a biscuit].
104: To dress fresh herrings.
105: Orange pudding.
106: A pippen pudding. [In another hand] An Apple Pudden.
107: Cherry marmalet Lady Misher.
108: To make a white Frigisey... Mrs Lucy Petchmore [or Letchmore].
109: To make a brown bread pudding.
110: To stew pigeons.
111: To make oyster loaves.
112: To jugg a Hare.
113: Mrs Foxes cake.
115-119: [in an 18th-century hand] Lemon Cream. To make French flummy. To make a spoonful pudding. Little Cakes. To make German puffs.
121-125: [in another 18th-century hand] To make Lemon Catchup. Mr. Norris 1770. To Dye black. A Puding for a Hare. To make Walnut Catchup ... Miss Peggs Rect. Mushroom Catchup.
127-139: index.
143: To preserve Cucumbers Mrs Walhouse way.
145: A slip coat chees.
147-152: A Dutch Plumb Cake. Custards. Lemon Cheesecakes. Custards. To stew a Calves Headwhole. White soop.
153-201: blank.