MANUSCRIPT RECIPE BOOK – EAST ANGLIAN QUAKERS

Culinary and medicinal receipt book, c.1700 onwards

Footnotes

'THE ANCIENT ALEXANDER FAMILY RECIPE BOOK': A note with this volume confirms it was in the possession of Henry Corder (1855-1944) of Bridgwater, Somerset, seedsman and nurseryman, member of the Somerset Archaeological & Natural History Society and British Astronomical Association, who inherited it from his mother Mary Ann Corder, née Alexander. The marriage of his parents in 1850, Mary Ann Alexander (1815-1913) of Goldrood House, Belstead, Suffolk and draper Henry Shewell Corder (1814-1912) of Ipswich, brought together two well-established and respected East Anglian Quaker families; the Alexanders, wealthy Quaker bankers, and the Corders, family of educationalist and Quaker biographer Susanna Corder, who also had connections to the Gurneys of Norfolk (indeed, a J.J. Gurney is credited here with a recipe for "Rögröd. 'The Crowning dish of Scandinavia'"). Mary Ann and her family were the subject of several photographs by relative and pioneer of photography Richard Dykes Alexander in the late 1850's. This collection of family recipes appears to date from the early years of the Alexander banking dynasty and may well have come from the household of Samuel Alexander, who founded the Needham Market Bank in 1744. With a number of branches throughout the county, it eventually became one of the banks merged to form Barclay & Co. in 1896.

Life at the Alexander family home, Goldrood, was depicted in a series of charming watercolours by Mary Ann painted between 1840-50 and published in 2013 by her great granddaughter (Joan Jackman, Goldrood: The History of a Quaker Family), including such scenes as Miss Fisk in the back kitchen preparing food and Miss Dawson in the pantry, the larder and the bacon closet.

Provenance: Alexander family of Suffolk, thence by descent to Henry Corder. Sold by the family at Christie's, 29 May 1986.