Call Number:

Codex.2110

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

1 volume

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Hare family recipe book, circa 1785-1811, Ms. Codex 2110, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

circa 1785-1811 (inclusive)

Creator:

Hare, John

Abstract:

This volume was written and compiled by John Hare of Canterbury, Kent, England, and gifted to his son, James Hare on 22 March 1785. There is a second hand present, indicating that James Hare continued to contribute recipes to the volume. This volume contains 135 recipes, mostly for medical remedies, attributed both to "J. Hare" and to numerous notable English and European medical figures from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Inscription on the pastedown endpaper indicates that this recipe book was written and compiled by John Hare of Canterbury, Kent, England and gifted to his son, James Hare, on 22 March 1785. Little else is known about the identities of John and James Hare.

The manuscript contains handwritten copies of recipes created by notable English and European medical figures of the 17th and 18th centuries, including physicians, clergymen, dentists, and gentlemen. These men include, Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738), William Buchan (1729-1805), George Cheyne (1672-1743), Thomas Daffy (d. 1680), Thomas Fuller (1654-1734), Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777), John Haygarth (1740-1827), Lorenz Heister (1683-1758), John Huxham (1692-1768), William Lobb (1809-1864), Sir John Lowther, 2nd Baronet, of Whitehaven (1642-1706), Thomas Marryat (1730-1792), Richard Mead (1673-1754), Sir John Pringle, 1st Baronet (1707-1782), John Radcliffe (1650-1714), Lazare Rivière (1589-1655), Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689), Daniel Turner (1667-1740/1741), Joshua Ward (1685-1761), and Richard Wiseman (1622-1676).

A recipe for Daffy's Elixir is included in the volume. Daffy's Elixir, developed by clergyman Thomas Daffy of Redmile, Leicestershire in the mid-to-late 17th century, was originally a cure for stomach-related illness but was later seen as a "universal cure."

References:

Fleming, Lindsay. "Daffy's Elixir." Notes and Queries, vol. Volume CXCVIII, 1953, pp. 238-240, https://doi.org/10.1093/nq/CXCVIII.jun.238

This volume contains 135 medicinal and culinary recipes created or compiled by John Hare and, presumably, James Hare from before 1785 through at least 1811. The vast majority of the recipes are medicinal.

An inscription on the pastedown endpaper indicates that this recipe book was written and compiled by John Hare of Canterbury, Kent, England and gifted to his son, James Hare, on 22 March 1785. Before the recipes begin, Hare includes a page of his own writing about parent-child relationships.

The first portion of the manuscript (p. 1-136) is written in John Hare's hand and contains 101 recipes ordered alphabetically by the medical concern they are intended to alleviate, starting with "ague" and ending with "venereal excrescences."

John Hare attributed many of these recipes to himself, but he also attributed several to notable English and European medical figures. It is unclear if these recipes are faithful to originals developed by these medical figures, or if they are inexact references recalled or interpreted by Hare.

In this section, John Hare often named the ailment, wrote a "signs of" paragraph, in which he detailed how to identify it, and then included a "method of cure" section in which he wrote one or several recipes or "charms" intended to alleviate the issue. The "charms" contain Christian references.

Most of the recipes are titled according to the condition they cure, but there is one titled for its creator, Daffy's Elixir, on page 67.

The volume switches hand on page 137, presumably to James Hare's, at which point the alphabetical order is discontinued. In this portion, there are 34 recipes, some of which are copies of those dating to 1760 and 1811. This portion is also where the few culinary recipes and household products are found. They include "blackening for shoes," "lemon pudding," and "walnut catchup." There are also several drafts of a verse titled, "Silent He Sleeps."

There is an inscription by a third hand on the pastedown endpaper likely by a later owner that reads, "Mrs. WM B. Hill for her [sic] perusals / From the Smith family at Barnstaple." This hand does not appear again within the volume.