Mrs. Dwight was the wife of the first President of Yale University. She left Greenfield Hill, Connecticut, in 1795 to go to New Haven with her husband. Evidently, prior to leaving, she passed this recipe along to a friend. It was finally published in 1899 by the Village Improvement Society of Greenfield Hill.
This is nearly but not the same as the cookie called “Apeas” in Philadelphia— without rosewater and lemon, which I mentioned under the recipe for Chocolate Ape