Call Number:

Ms. Codex 2148

Repository:

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

Extent:

1 volume(s)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Sperling family recipe book, 1799-1816, Ms. Codex 2148, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1799-1816 (inclusive)

Form:

Cookbooks

Abstract:

This volume contains 166 culinary, household, and medicinal recipes and was created and compiled between 1799 and 1816 in England. The primary contributor was possibly Sarah Ann Grace Sperling (1770-1850), but there are numerous hands present.

Due to mentions of Henry Sperling (p. 54) and Dynes Hall (p. 130), this volume possibly belonged to Sarah Ann Grace Sperling, wife of Henry Piper Sperling.

Sarah Ann Grace Sperling was born in London to Henry and Sarah Cheyney Grace on August 31, 1770. She died in Hastings, Sussex in 1850.

Henry Piper Sterling, Esq. was born to Henry and Mary Sterling on June 20, 1768 at Dynes Hall, Great Maplestead, Essex, which was sold to the elder Sperling in 1766. Henry Piper Sperling was a trustee and director of Hand-in-Hand Insurance Society. He died in 1847.

The Sperlings were married on April 7, 1791 in Tottenham. Together they had several children, including Henry Grace Sperling (1792-1821) and John Sperling (1793-1877), who respectively grew up to become a reverend and an English military engineer of the Corps of Royal Engineers, Board of Ordnance.

From at least 1791 through 1816, the Sperlings lived in Tottenham. In 1816, Sperling bought Park Place (Henley-on-Thames) in an auction. The property is a Grade II listed country house on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. In 1824, Sperling traded Park Place for Norbury Park with his cousin Ebenezer Fuller-Maitland. Norbury Park Mansion is a Georgian manor house in Surrey. The Sperlings remained at Norbury Park Mansion until Henry Piper Sperling's death in 1847. The property is listed as Grade II on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

Sources:

Class: HO107; Piece: 1070; Book: 13; Civil Parish: Mickleham; County: Surrey; Enumeration District: 13; Folio: 23; Page: 15; Line: 15; GSU roll: 474660. Census Returns of England and Wales, 1841. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1841.

London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P69/Gis/A/003/Ms06420/001

"Norbury Park." Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias, en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/6644767. Accessed 3 Nov. 2023.

Stephen, Sir Leslie. "Sperling, John." Directory of National Biography, vol. 18, Oxford University Press, London, 1922, p. 807.

This volume dates from 1799 to 1816 and contains 166 culinary, household, and medicinal recipes created and compiled in England, possibly by Sarah Ann Grace Sperling. There are numerous other hands present throughout the volume.

This volume is bound in half leather. There is an index (p. i-vi) that lists the recipes numerically according to their page number. It contains newspaper clippings with recipes attached to the front and back pastedown and on pages 103, 111, and 114. These clippings are from papers including the Yorkshire Gazette (front pastedown), Belfast Paper (p. 103), and Glasgow Chronicle (p. 114).

Many of the recipes are attributed to individuals, including Miss Vernon (p. 17), Mrs. Colville (24), L.A. Carpenter (p. 29), Lady Charlemont (p. 30), Mrs. Breton (p. 32), John Bruce (p. 73), Mrs. Spragg (p. 77), Mrs. James Werthy (p. 99), Dr. Crassford Clifton (p. 128), Lady Wolesby (p. 131), and Lady Frances Harper (p. 148).

Examples of the culinary recipes include row hamptons (p. 4), potatoe soup (p. 7), blanche mange (p. 11), Angellica green (p. 15), Shrewsbury cakes (p. 20), cream cheese (p. 29), Italian cheese (p. 32), flummery (p. 33), cheap dish for the poor (p. 45), cheese on toast (p. 55), Sally Lunn (p. 60), ice cream (p. 62), chicken and rice (p. 90), Mulligatawny soup (p. 108), and a haggis for the poor (p. 137).

Examples of the household recipes include Dr. Pary's vinegar for preserving wood (p. 55), to clean oil pictures (p. 57), purple dye (p. 97), to destroy house flies (p. 103), and wash balls (p. 162).

Examples of medicinal recipes include for a cough (p. 168), typhus fever (p. 113), putrid fevers (p. 120), for the bite of a viper (p.129), bile (p. 150), and epilepsy (p. 163).