Elizabeth Grey, Countess of Kent


Elizabeth Grey, Countess of Kent was a medical recipe collector, and the wife of Henry Grey, 8th Earl of Kent.

Biography

She was a daughter of Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury and Mary Cavendish.
She married Grey on 16 November 1601, at St Martin-in-the-Fields. They lived at Wrest Park, Bedfordshire, where she managed the large household. They had no children, and the Earl died in 1639. Afterwards she may have married the writer, John Selden, who had worked for the Earl and to whom she left most of her property.
She was a favourite attendant of Queen Anne of Denmark, and in 1610 danced in the court masque Tethys' Festival as the "Nymph of Medway". It was said she replaced Jean Drummond as the queen's personal servant in October 1617.
After her death, her collection of medical recipes was published, originally as A Choice Manual, or Rare Secrets in Physick and Chirurgery Collected and Practised by the Right Honourable the Countess of Kent, late deceased. Later editions of the book added the subtitle Whereto are added several experiments of the vertue of Gascon powder, and lapis contra yarvam by a professor of physick. As also most exquisite ways of preserving, conserving, candying &c.. The book was popular, going through twenty-two editions. Some of the recipes reflect the influence of English Paracelsianism. Medical recipes were an interest she shared with her younger sister, Alethea Howard, Countess of Arundel.
A book published in 1653 by W. J. Gent, titled A True Gentlewoman's Delight, is considered to be her personal recipe collection, although there is speculation that the cookbook was written by the countess's chef Robert May, or by the publisher himself.

Attribution