![[Fyffe, Dr William, attributed, and others] - English Civil War manuscript remedy and recipe book](https://media.app.artisio.co/media/104cbde6-0d38-43cb-9e0f-bb721ef57bcf/inventory/36b6326d-132b-4699-baab-1c424f906c86/c96c446a-1d82-484d-92ce-21c1ab770032/0001_sutcev_original.jpg)
[Fyffe, Dr William, attributed, and others] - English Civil War manuscript remedy and recipe book
Mid-17th century
£10,080
Auction: 05 February 2025 from 10:00 GMT
Description
Comprising 82 pages of remedies, at least 25 of these in Fyffe's hand (although further pages may be written by him in a slightly more scrawled hand) including “A digestive truection? for a Deep hollow Wound…”, “A very good Oyl for a wound”, “herb Oyntment, excellent for a Bruis…", “to Stoppe bleeding at ye Nose”, “A pocket perfume for to prevent ye Plague”, “A spetiall Antidote against ye Plague”, “To Make a Plague water”, “A broath for the bloody flux”, “A medicene for the Dropsie”, and others; [WITH] 60 pages of food and drink recipes, including “To make Lemon Cream”, “An orange pudding”, “Whildhall pancakes”, “To make Soop” and “to make chees cake”, the name Griselda Fletcher inscribed to final leaf; contemporary calf bound notebook with provincial gilt tooling, one clasp intact only, 15 x 10cm
Provenance
Dr William Fyffe, b.1615, of Parrox Hall, Lancashire (the probable author of the medical recipes), appointed Honorary Physician to the King for the County of Lancashire, and thence by descent. Fyffe was notably a signatory to the Loyal Address of 1660, calling for Charles II to return to England and reclaim the throne.
Footnote
Retained by the descendants of Dr. Fyffe for over three hundred years, this small yet fascinating manuscript has been referenced in the histories of Lancashire. Parrox Hall, Dr. William Fyffe's home-by-marriage, was host to a Royalist army in 1651, and many of the remedies for wounds are thought to date from this time.
“Dr. Fyffe and his wife Ellen were in possession of Parrox Hall throughout [the English Civil War], and a fascinating record in the form of a handwritten notebook containing herbal medical recipes attributed to Dr. Fyffe, plus many culinary recipes, still survives in the Hall. The number of treatments for the plague and wounds caused by sword or gunshot date the work to this period, but remedies for many other kinds of ailment are also included and the book is written in several different hands.” Gordon Heald, Parrox Hall: The Best Kept Secret of Over Wyre.