Manuscript Location

Historic New England, Library and Archives

Place of Origin

United States ➔ New Hampshire

Date of Composition

1847

Description

Louisa Catherine Rundlet May (1817-1895) was the eleventh of twelve children born to James Rundlet (ca. 1771-1852) and Jane Hill Rundlet (1774-1849). Her father was a textile merchant, woolen manufacturer, and investor in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Louisa Catherine and her husband, Hartford-born Savannah merchant George Hall May, had twin children, James Rundlet May (1841-1918) and Jane Rundlet May (1841-1911). After her husband's death, in 1858, Louisa Catherine and her children moved back to her childhood home, a mansion that her father had built on Middle Street, in Portsmouth, in 1806-7. The house was inherited by her son James, then by James's son Ralph, who deeded the house to Historic New England in 1971. The Rundlet-May House is now operated as a museum.

The cookbook is organized in Series VI of the Rundlet-May family papers.