Anne Blencowe or Anne, Lady Blencowe, née Anne Wallis (4 June 1656 – 6 April 1718) was a British compiler of recipes. Her book was first published more than 200 years after her death.

Life

Anne Wallis was born to Susanna Glyde and her husband Professor John Wallis, who taught geometry at Oxford University and was employed as a cryptographer. Anne Wallis is thought to have had a good education. In 1675 she married a barrister, John Blencowe, who had recently inherited Marston Hall and his family's estate at

Marston St. Lawrence Marston St. Lawrence is a village and civil parish about northwest of Brackley in Northamptonshire. A stream flows through the village and another forms the southern boundary of the parish. The two merge as Farthinghoe Stream, a tributary of t ...

in Northamptonshire. She became Anne, Lady Blencowe. The couple had seven children and five survived to be adults. Blencowe took a great interest in the food of her household. She understood about using sugar and

vinegar Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to eth ...

to preserve food and she made her own country wines. She knew how to boil-down meat to make a gluey substance that could be used as an early form of

stock cube A bouillon cube (Canada and US), stock cube (Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and UK), or broth cube (Asia) is dehydrated broth or stock formed into a small cube about wide. It is typically made from dehydrated vegetables or me ...

. She gathered these techniques together in a book of sweet and savoury dishes that included a separate section for medicines. Blencowe shared her recipes and also adopted the village's own recipe for buns. Her book was published in 1925 and gives an insight into the lives of the upper-class English. The Blencoes had access to morels, truffles,

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-f ...

es, apricots,

barberries ''Berberis'' (), commonly known as barberry, is a large genus of deciduous and evergreen shrubs from tall, found throughout temperate and subtropical regions of the world (apart from Australia). Species diversity is greatest in South America an ...

and spices. Blencowe's son

William Blencowe William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

had been taught by her father, and he in time took on her father's role as the government's decoder of intercepted messages. William took his own life in 1712.T. F. Henderson, ‘Blencowe, William (1683–1712)’, rev. Philip Carter, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 200
accessed 16 Nov 2016
/ref> Blencoe died in 1718 and her husband died eight years later. They were both buried in Marston St. Lawrence.

Legacy

Blencoe's recipes, which she called "Receipts", were kept in the library of her daughter Susanna Jennens at

Weston Hall Weston Hall is a 17th-century manor house in Weston, Northamptonshire. The house was owned by the Sitwell family's ancestors from 1714 to 2021. It is a Grade II* listed building. History The manor house dates to the 17th century, and is believ ...

. This house was passed through the female line until it came into the possession of

Sacheverell Sitwell Sir Sacheverell Reresby Sitwell, 6th Baronet, (; 15 November 1897 – 1 October 1988) was an English writer, best known as an art critic, music critic (his books on Mozart, Liszt, and Domenico Scarlatti are still consulted), and writer on a ...

. The book was discovered by Georgia Sitwell who showed it to George Saintsbury. He arranged for the book to be published. More than 200 years after Blencoe's death her recipe book was published, in 1925, accompanied by an eight-page introduction by Saintsbury. 600 copies were created. The book was reprinted in 2004 by one of Blencowe's descendants. A painting of her, thought to date from 1675, is extant and is attributed to a painter from the school of

Michael Dahl Michael Dahl (1659–1743) was a Swedish portrait painter who lived and worked in England most of his career and died there. He was one of the most internationally known Swedish painters of his time. He painted portraits of many aristocrats and s ...

.Joan Thirsk, ‘Blencowe , Anne, Lady Blencowe (1656–1718)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Oct 2005; online edn, Jan 200
accessed 17 Nov 2016
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blencowe, Anne 1656 births 1718 deaths English food writers