Mary Cannon's Commonplace Book: An Irish Kitchen in the 1700s

Mary Cannon's Commonplace Book, An Irish Kitchen in the 1700s, is centered round 100 recipes written by the author's ancestor Mary Cannon, between 1700 and 1707. They include some intriguing comments from contemporary sources, concerning the use of herbs and spices for medicinal purposes and for protection from witchcraft and the plague. The historical background of the family forms interludes between each section and the next. The Cannon men were mostly soldiers, sailors or surgeons and had interesting lives, being involved in the Jacobite wars, the Battle of Trafalgar and the Indian Mutiny. The stories of Alexander Cannon, a Jacobite leader, and Moses Rouquier, a Huguenot refugee, make fascinating reading. The women of the family include a later Mary Cannon who escaped from the Indian Mutiny in 1857 and later crossed the Sinai Peninsula on a camel with her two children. Alice Bouillez, also a descendant of Mary Cannon, has provided the drawings and a painting for the jacket. She lives in France and has researched their Huguenot forbears. The book combines social history with a readable account of an Irish family through three centuries.