Elizabeth Ellicott Lea and the first Maryland cookbook in 1845

Elizabeth (Ellicott) Lea (1793-1858) was born in Ellicott’s mills to

George and Elizabeth (Brooke) Ellicott, the son of one of the

founding Quaker brothers.  In 1812, she married Thomas

Lea Jr. (1789-1829) at the New Elkridge Meeting House in Ellicott City,

and lived at his family mills near Wilmington, DE.

After moving to her mother’s Brooke family lands near Sandy

Spring MD in 1823, Lea’s husband died and left her to

raise their large family at "Walnut Hill" farm.  Lea sent her newly

married daughter a recipe manuscript which was first published

in 1845.  Domestic Cookery went through two more editions -1846, 1851 -and numerous printings during the next 40 years. 

The George Ellicott home, built 1789 where EELea was born and raised.

Elizabeth Ellicott and Thomas Lea, Jr. were married in 1812 at the New Elkridge Meeting House on a hill over Main St. Ellicott City.

Elkridge Huckleberry Pudding    

One pound of flour, one of light-brown sugar, eight eggs—beat as sponge cake, and add one quart of berries, nicely picked, washed, and allowed to dry; bake as sponge cake. This may be served with sauce, either hot or cold.   1845

The Lea flour mills in Brandywine (now part of Wilmington), Delaware

Dover Cake

One pound of flour, one of sugar, half a pound of butter, six eggs, half a nutmeg,a spoonful of rose brandy; beat the butter and sugar together, adding the other ingredients, the whites of the eggs beaten separately; bake as pound cake.

Elizabeth Ellicott Lea's Domestic Cookery's many recipes  HERE

©2018 Patricia Bixler Reber
Forgotten history of Ellicott City & Howard County MD