Anne Blencowe (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Wallis; 4 June 1656 – 6 April 1718), also known as Anne, Lady Blencowe, 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 (Glynde) and Professor

John Wallis John Wallis (; ; ) was an English clergyman and mathematician, who is given partial credit for the development of infinitesimal calculus. Between 1643 and 1689 Wallis served as chief cryptographer for Parliament and, later, the royal court. ...

, 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,

Sir John Blencowe Sir John Blencowe (1642 – May 1726) was an English judge and politician. Biography Blencowe was born in 1642 at the manor of Marston St. Lawrence, on the Oxfordshire border of Northamptonshire. The family came originally from Greystock, in ...

, who had recently inherited Marston Hall and his family's estate at Marston St. Lawrence 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 Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

and

vinegar Vinegar () is an aqueous solution of diluted acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains from 5% to 18% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting ...

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. 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

morel ''Morchella'', the true morels, is a genus of edible sac fungi closely related to anatomically simpler cup fungi in the order Pezizales ( division Ascomycota). These distinctive fungi have a honeycomb appearance due to the network of ridges ...

s, truffles,

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and Agriculture, cultivated in China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and the glossy-skinned, non-fuzzy varieties called necta ...

es,

apricot An apricot (, ) is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus ''Prunus''. Usually an apricot is from the species '' P. armeniaca'', but the fruits of the other species in ''Prunus'' sect. ''Armeniaca'' are also ...

s, barberries and spices. Blencowe's son William Blencowe 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, October 200
accessed 16 November 2016
/ref> Blencoe died in 1718 and her husband died eight years later. They were both buried in Marston St. Lawrence.

Legacy

Her recipes, which she called "Receipts", were kept in the library of her daughter, Susanna Jennens, at Weston Hall. This house was passed through the female line until it came into the possession of Sacheverell Sitwell, whose wife Georgia discovered the book. She showed it to

George Saintsbury George Edward Bateman Saintsbury, FBA (23 October 1845 – 28 January 1933), was an English critic, literary historian, editor, teacher, and wine connoisseur. He is regarded as a highly influential critic of the late 19th and early 20th cent ...

, who arranged for it 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 ...

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blencowe, Anne 1656 births 1718 deaths English food writers People from Northamptonshire Place of birth missing Wives of baronets