Elizabeth Horsell
English social reformer and writer (1798–1874)
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Elizabeth Horsell (née Gillett; 1798 – 12 June 1874) was an English social reformer and writer. She was active in the temperance movement and in vegetarian advocacy. Horsell wrote The Penny Domestic Assistant and Guide to Vegetarian Cookery (1850), an early vegan cookbook. With her husband, the publisher and reformer William Horsell, she operated a hydropathic infirmary in Ramsgate and took part in public lectures and reform work.
- Social reformer
- writer
Elizabeth Horsell | |
|---|---|
| Born | Elizabeth Gillett Bromyard, Herefordshire, England |
| Baptised | 27 June 1798 |
| Died | (aged 76) |
| Occupations |
|
| Known for | Vegetarianism and temperance movement activism |
| Notable work | The Penny Domestic Assistant and Guide to Vegetarian Cookery (1850) |
| Spouse | |
Biography
Early and personal life
Elizabeth Gillett was born in 1798 in Bromyard, Herefordshire, the daughter of John and Anne Gillett. She was baptised on 27 June 1798.[1] She married William Horsell in Vowchurch on 30 June 1834.[2]
Social reform
From the 1840s, Horsell was active in the temperance movement and was invited to speak at Dr John Lee's Peace and Temperance Festival.[3]: 11 With her husband, she attended vegetarian meetings in London and lectured at venues including the Talfourd Hotel.[3][4][5]
In 1846, the couple moved to Ramsgate, where they established a hydropathic boarding house.[3]: 2 While the establishment was being set up, Horsell ran a family school for the "moral, intellectual and physical improvement" of children.[3]: 11
The Penny Domestic Assistant and Guide to Vegetarian Cookery
In 1850, Horsell published The Penny Domestic Assistant and Guide to Vegetarian Cookery, a vegan cookbook issued by her husband's press.[5] It contained recipes without animal products or salt, together with guidance on domestic economy, industry, and hygiene, statistical tables, and moral reflections. An advertisement in The Vegetarian Advocate presented the book as a guide to domestic management for vegetarian households.[6]
Later life and death
After her husband's death in 1863, Horsell remained involved in the vegetarian movement and ran a girls' boarding school that accepted vegetarian pupils.[3]: 11–12 She wrote letters to The Dietetic Reformer and Vegetarian Messenger in which she reaffirmed her commitment to dietary reform and abstinence from tea, coffee, and cocoa. In one letter, she urged readers to "work while it is called to-day, for the social, physical, and spiritual improvement of your day and generation."[7] In another, she described herself as "a new creature in Christ Jesus" and linked vegetarianism and teetotalism to her Christian beliefs. In 1865, she wrote that she felt "more and more the loss of my dear husband."[7]
Horsell lived in Lee, Kent, then a village on the outskirts of London, in her later years.[3]: 12 She died on 12 June 1874 at Sydenham Cottage, aged 76.[5] She was buried in Lewisham on 18 June.[8]