What can recipes and receipts tell us about life in a 17th – 18th century Yorkshire Country House?
The Temple Newsam archive includes a vast collection of recipes and receipts which provide us with a wealth of information about the cultural norms of 17th – 18th century Yorkshire. Temple Newsam was purchased by Sir Arthur Ingram in 1622 for £12,000 (which in 2017 would be about £1,578,240.00). He was an MP in the House of Commons and his purchase of Temple Newsam made him one of the greatest landowners in Yorkshire.
Recipe collections from this time often include a mix of culinary instructions and medicinal advice. Temple Newsam’s collection varies from guidelines on how to take Palsy Drops, to a recipe for how to make gingerbread. Palsy was a term used for paralysis, or weakness, in various parts of the body. The palsy drops instructions directed the sufferer to take 10 drops every night in a glass of wine at bedtime, gradually increasing the amount until a spoonful is being taken every night. There is no mention of what the palsy drops contain so we can’t know how affective the medicine was by today’s standards. While the recipe for gingerbread simply lists the ingredients (flour, treacle, sugar, butter and brandy) and the quantity needed, giving no further instructions. This implies prior knowledge of how to assemble the ingredients.
Recipes and receipts are an important part of family and estate collections, allowing us into the domestic sphere where we can see what families were purchasing to eat and treat their ailments. If you are interested in viewing more of the Temple Newsam (WYL100) collection please talk to a member of the Leeds archive team or email us at leeds@wyjs.org.uk
Did you know?
Temple Newsam holds the earliest known reference to tea in England. The receipt below shows ‘china drink’ being purchased for the house in 1642, 18 years before Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist, tried it and wrote ‘I did send for a cup of tee (a china drink) of which I never drank before’.
Click on the images below to see a description of each item and find out more about these fantastic archives.
To Stew Lettice This recipe gives instructions on how to stew a cabbage lettuce but does not list the ingredients needed at the beginning as we do in recipes today. The directions seem to be written in the local dialect ‘blanch ‘em, then take ‘em & put ‘em into a Stew’. WYL100/F/8 c.17th/18th century
Recipe for the bite of a mad dog This recipe to cure someone bitten by a mad dog, which today is known as rabies, was to treat a widespread fear in 17th and 18th century England. The popular recipe book ‘Art of Cookery’ by Hannah Glasse included a recipe to cure the bite of a mad dog. Her recipe involved bloodletting, mixing powdered black pepper and liverwort to half a pint of milk to drink, followed by a cold bath. This recipe is quite different, suggesting the person afflicted mix 1 oz. of Dragons Blood (a red plant resin) with 1 oz. of Spanish Brown (a specific kind of earth that is a reddish brown colour) and 5 oz. of powdered box leaves and take one spoonful of the mixture three mornings in a row. Unfortunately neither recipe would have made any difference to the person bitten as there wasn’t a cure for Rabies until Louis Pasteur created the vaccine for it in 1885. c.17th/18th century WYL100/F/8
Tea Tea was popularised in England during the 1660s by King Charles II and his Portuguese wife Queen Catherine de Braganza. This document records the purchase of tea by Arthur Ingram in 1642, known at this time as ‘china drink’. This indicates that the Ingram family were one of the first to drink tea in England, before the Portuguese Queen Catherine influenced tea becoming fashionable at court. 1642 WYL100/EA/12/9
Shopping Receipt This shopping receipt shows the list of items purchased by Arthur Ingram, 3rd Viscount of Irvine in the year 1693. It has been organised in terms of what was purchased each month suggesting it is some form of annual receipt. The list includes medicine from the time, such as purging potion and powdered liquorice. It also shows products bought on a monthly basis such as mineral water. 1693 WYL100/EA/12/9
Sugar loaves Sugar loaves rose in popularity during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) who is famous for her love of sugar. These loaves were tall and conical shaped and came in different sizes and grades of quality. A large cone usually indicated a lower grade of sugar. Pieces were broken off using an iron sugar cutter. This receipt shows the purchase of 6 sugar loaves in May 1700 for Temple Newsam. 1700 WYL100/EA/12/1
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