Elizabeth Moxon (fl. 1740–1754) was an English writer on cookery, known chiefly for her influential book English Housewifry, Exemplified in above Four Hundred Receits,[a]Receit, or receipt, is a name historically used for a recipe: “A statement of the ingredients and procedure required for making a dish or an item of food or drink”.[1] published in 1741. She has been called one of “the female pioneers of English culinary writing”.[2]
Nothing is known of Elizabeth’s birth or parentage, but she probably spent most of her life in Yorkshire, in the vicinity of Leeds and Pontefract. Her book was presented as practical help for “Mistresses of Families, higher and lower Women servants”, based on her thirty years of “practice and experience”.[2] It featured more than 450 recipes for cooks in middle-class Georgian households, and included a lavish dinner party plan for every month of the year, with seasonal menus and suggested table layouts.[3]
English Housewifry was published in Leeds in 1741 by James Lister, owner of the Leeds Mercury newspaper. Even though priced at five shillings, equivalent to about £46 as at 2024,[b]Calculated using the retail price index.[4] it sold well, and from the second edition in 1743 it was marketed in London as well as Yorkshire.[2]
In 1758 the eighth edition appeared, with extra recipes collected from “gentlewomen in the neighbourhood”. By this time Elizabeth may have been dead, and the rights probably belonged to Griffith Wright, who had purchased the Leeds Mercury in 1753.[2]