Bent, Mary

Cookery book, with a few medical receipts. Inside the upper cover and on the recto of the first leaf is the name 'I. Bent' stamped in red: at the bottom of the verso of the last leaf the signature of 'Mary Bent 1664', who is perhaps the original compiler.

The script is somewhat illiterate, and the spelling remarkably varied.

The name of 'Ann Clayton' in an early 18th cent. hand appears twice, inscribed inside the upper cover.

There are a few additions by other 18th cent. hands, one of which on p. 163 is dated 1729. A note in pencil by John Hodgkin [1852-1930] refers to this date, which he considers 'much later than the date of the book itself'. He has also written, inside the lower cover, 'A. Sutton Manchester, June 8, 1917. MS/X.'

From the John Hodgkin Collection of Cookery-books.