Anne Glyd - her book 1656

By Giles Drake

Fig 1

On a day sometime in the seventeenth century, a young housewife sat down at a table in her home with a hardback book of blank pages. She opened the front cover and turned over the first page and on the following page with a confident artful pen strokes, wrote ‘Anne Glyd, Her Book, 1656’ (Fig 1).

This book became Anne’s record of recipes for cooking, medical remedies and even veterinary treatments. Her first recipe was ‘To Make a Paste of Genoa ye True Way’; credited to Mrs Berry. This recipe for making a fruit jelly that was then used to create decorative shapes that could be used to adorn other foods, or be eaten separately as a sweet treat.

By this time Anne was about 25 years old, had been married to Richard Glyd of Bletchingley for six years and was already mother to six children. However, sadly two of these had died in infancy. Anne was born on 8th January 1631 in Worplesdon, near Guildford in Surrey. Daughter of Anthony and Agnes Stoughton, she grew up in a prominent county family as her grandfather was Lawrence

Stoughton, a Member of Parliament. Anne benefited from an education which taught her the essential skill of reading and writing that would allow her record to be created. Aged 19 (circa 1650), she married Richard Glyd of Pendhill, Bletchingley and set up home with him there. Richard was well established within the merchant classes. He, therefore, was able to provide a good house and financial stability for his wife. By the time of his death in 1658, Richard held the position of treasurer of Christ’s Hospital in London.

Households such as theirs were busy places, and the wives were likely the principal managers, which allowed their husbands to pursue their business interests. This became even more true for Anne after her husband Richard, died in November 1658. From this point, Anne remained single and continued to live in the family home until 1696 when, aged 65, she moved to Newington by Hythe in Kent, to live with her daughter Anne and her husband William Brockman at Beachborough House.

It is widely accepted that these house books were probably quite common. They became the housewife’s bible of information needed to run their small communities. Ultimately, Anne’s collection amounted to 490 recipes; 28 for veterinary treatments, 5 for household use (pomanders and moth repellents), 99 for food and 352 medical remedies. The latter category points to just how conscious people were about their health, especially in a time where life was all to often, cut short.

There is no visible order to how the recipes were recorded in the book. Anne appears to document recipes as she collects them.

Hence, within the first few pages, records switch between pastes for tender plumbs and berries to a cure to stop rot disease in sheep or stop the runs in a calf. This simply underlines that this was a personal collection; Anne’s reference book, rather than a book for others to pick up and peruse.

When I began transcribing the book, as a forester and woodland ecologist, I imagined that I would be unlocking the secrets of how our native plants were used to cure our ills. Sitting in the British Library reading the original book, I read references to making decoctions of up to 26 different plants, sweetened with honey, to make water that would cure sores, quell an aching breast or stomach, stem the flow of blood and cause bullets to fall out of the body or induce a still-birth.

Even the calves were given a mixture of sloe berries (Prunus spinosa) boiled in beer to bind their runny tummies. The sheep were being fed a liquor of broom (Cytisus scoparius) boiled in brine. Still, it had to be dosed at

Michaelmas time (late September).

This collection will tell you how to pickle cucumbers (No 75, 78 & 79) and oysters (No 77), bake cakes in the New England style (No 76) and make candied flowers.

But a darker side lurks within the remedies that indicates good intentions were as likely to make a condition worse, if not immediately then certainly over the long term.

One might brush their teeth with a mixture of powdered ivory and an alum of lead (No 59); lead is also used in treatments for worms and salves for various skin treatments (No 198, 285, 407, 482); a mother in difficult labour should drink her husband’s water (No 288); treatment for a sore throat includes powdered dog dung (No 201); to treat shingles it was recommended to bleed a cat and mix the blood with cream, although the reader is left in the dark as to whether the mixture was then drunk or applied to the affected area (No 454); a pound of sheep suet and dung was added to an ointment for application to burns (No 385), as approved by surgeon Mr Johnson.

Even the horse got a pint of urine from the chamber pot boiled and mixed with lard or grease to treat a cold, whilst the pig was treated to a water of dragon lilly root, sage, balm, yarrow, wild daisies, rosemary, hyssop, rue and southernwood boiled in strong beer to treat it for a bite from a mad dog. Perhaps it made the hog ultimately taste better.

Significantly, so many of the recipes are credited to named people.

Cousin Berry was a significant contributor. Others included Goodman Killik, Dr Theobals, Mrs Wigers, Joan Wickers, Cousin Nat Sto Irland, Goodwife Butt, Bishop Winchester (currant wine), Mrs Hollands, Mrs Steats (1686) the mysteriously abbreviated R Ot, even her husband Richard, and herself, Anne Glyd. There was a healthy trade in recipes and remedies within Anne’s social network. The Brockman collection in the British Library includes a collection of individually written recipes and remedies that demonstrates this.

Anne also used this book to record the important times in her family. The births and deaths of her children, grandchildren and husband are carefully documented, often with a prayer that shows the emotion behind the event. Anne writes a special note that tells of her attempt to take custody of 6 of her grandchildren after their mother and father died of smallpox, an attempt frustrated by trustees. It is thought she was ultimately successful in this action and subsequently she moved to Beachbourgh with them to live with her daughter Anne. Hidden amongst these notes, a single line records “The 4th November the prince of orang began to land his army”, reminding us the book was recorded during a time of much turmoil.

This book is part of the Brockman manuscript collection held by the British Library. It is an open resource of family, household and business papers that opens a window on to life. Copies of the completed transcript of Anne Glyd’s remedies are available through the Kent Archaeological Society.