Raffald, Elizabeth

She was born in Doncaster. Her father had been a schoolmaster and, after a reasonable education which included a little French, she entered service at the age of 15, gaining experience and skills in several Yorkshire families.

She wrote: ‘the common servants [being] so ignorant in dressing meat, and a good cook so hard to be met with, put me upon studying the art of cookery more than perhaps I otherwise should have done.’