Hannah Glasse - Early Life

Early Life

Glasse was christened on 28 March 1708 at St Andrews, Holborn, London. Her mother is said to have been Hannah Reynolds, a widow. Her father was Isaac Allgood, a landowner of Brandon and Simonburn, both in Northumberland, had recently married Hannah Clark, the daughter of a London vintner. Hannah Glasse was brought up in Allgood’s home at Simonburn near Hexham, together with his legitimate children, Lancelot and Isaac. She once described her mother in a letter as being a "wicked wretch!"

During her childhood, Glasse formed a relationship with her father's youngest sister, Margaret Widdrington, with whom she corresponded through most of her adult life. The surviving letters are the major source of information about Glasse's personal life. Isaac Allgood and his wife Hannah Clark both died of illness by 1725, when Glasse was 16 years old, and 1720 respectively. On 5 August 1724 at Leyton, however, Hannah Glasse had married an Irish soldier, John Glasse. Glasse's letters reveal that from 1728–1732 the couple held positions in the household of the 4th Earl of Donegall at Broomfield, Essex. Thereafter they seemed to have lived in London.

Hannah Glasse’s identity as the author of one of the most popular of 18th-century cookery books was not finally confirmed until 1938, when the historian Madeline Hope Dodds of Gateshead settled the matter. The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy was published by subscription in 1747, and also sold at 'Mrs. Ashburn’s China Shop' according to the title page. A second edition appeared before the year was out. The book did not reveal its authorship, except generally with the signature 'By a Lady'. This permitted the erroneous claim it was written by John Hill. In Boswell’s Life of Johnson, a dinner party is recounted in which the publisher Dilly suggests Hill was the true author. Johnson was not convinced. In 1747, the same year in which the book appeared, John Glasse died. Also in that year, Glasse set herself up as a 'habitmaker' or dressmaker in Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, in partnership with her eldest daughter Margaret.

The direction "First catch your hare" is sometimes misattributed to Glasse. The closest to it in her Art of Cookery is the recipe for roast hare (page 6) which begins "Take your hare when it be cas'd", meaning simply to take a skinned hare. In 1995, Prospect Books Ltd published a facsimile edition of the 1747 edition of the book, with introductory essays by Jennifer Stead and Priscilla Bain, and a glossary by Alan Davidson. In 1998, Applewood Books published a facsimile edition of the 1805 edition of the book, annotated by culinary historian Karen Hess.