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Title
"The Lady Sedley, her Receipt book, 1686"
Reference
MS534
Date
1686
Creator
Sedley, Lady (Catharine)
Biography:
Lady Catharine Sedley* (d.1705) was the daughter of John Savage, Earl of Rivers, and was probably born in the late 1630s, or early 1640s. She married Sir Charles Sedley, wit, dramatic author, and Member of Parliament for New Romney, on 23 February 1656/7 at St Giles-in-the-Fields. Her husband, favoured at the court of Charles II, gained a reputation as a patron of literature in the Restoration period, and was the Lisideius of the poet John Dryden's 'Essay of Dramatic Poesy' (1668). His lewd, drunken behaviour brought him notoriety which rivaled his literary reputation. There are several references to Sedley's antics in Samuel Pepys's Diary. Sir Charles and Lady Sedley had one daughter, Catharine, born in 1657. She became the favourite mistress of James, Duke of York, afterwards James II, who created her Countess of Dorchester. Lady Sedley was eventually locked up in an asylum, or confined in a convent, many years before she died (Guthrie, 1913, p.12; Boswell, 1929, p.1058). She is thought to have died in 1705. *There is some controversy over whether the Lady Sedley whose recipe book the College holds is Lady Catharine Sedley, wife of Sir Charles Sedley, as Leonard Guthrie propounds. Eleanore Boswell suggests that Lady Catharine Sedley could not have written the recipe book as from 1672 she had 'lost her reason'. Boswell believes that the recipe book is more likely to have belonged to Ann Ayscough, Sir Charles Sedley's common law wife with whom he lived after his wife was confined in a convent, and whom Boswell suggests was probably known socially as Lady Sedley. Sources: 'Dictionary of National Biography', Vol.LI, Sidney Lee (ed.) (London, 1897) [DNB, 1897, pp.185-88], entries for Catharine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester (pp.185-87) & Sir Charles Sedley (pp.187-88) 'The Lady Sedley's Receipt Book, 1686, and other Seventeenth-century Receipt Books', Leonard Guthrie, 'Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine', 1913, Vol. VI, pp.150-169 'Correspondence: Lady Sedley's Receipt Book', Eleanore Boswell, 'Times Literary Supplement', 12 December 1929, p.1058
Scope and Content
Book of culinary and medical recipes. By Lady Catherine Sedley, wife of Sir Charles Sedley, 1639-1701 It consists of 75 pages containing 140 receipts, sixteen of which are culinary and (the rest medical, mostly herbal, for the use of major and minor ailments, a few of them are cosmetic. The first 58 pages are written in a good legible hand, the lines are carefully ruled and the headings are bold and ornamental. Subsequent entries, however, are in different and less educated handwriting, the ruled lines disappear, the headings are less ostentatious and the whole work shows signs of haste or carelessness in execution. There is also an article on the receipt book and other 17th century receipt books, by Leonard George Guthrie, 1913. May have actually been written by Ann Ayscough rather than Catherine, Lady Sedley (d.1705), wife of Sir Charles Sedley (1639-1701) or their daughter Catherine, Countess of Dorchester (1657-1717)Index References: Prescriptions Recipes See Dr. Leonard Guthrie. Proc. Roy. Soc. Med. 1913, VI (Sect. Hist. Med.) pp. 150-169 Condition: 1 - in old box
Extent
76 pp.
Language
English
Archival history
Presented by Dr. Leonard Guthrie, 1913
Level of description
file
Normal location
11/2ND/SR/B2/5
Access
Open access