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English cookbook writer (1782–1861)

Martha Brotherton
Third edition title page of Brotherton's Vegetable Cookery
Born
Martha Harvey

Whittington, Derbyshire, England
Baptised1782
Died (aged 1783)
Pendleton, Salford, England
Resting place
Weaste Cemetery
Other nameMartha Harvey Brotherton[1]
OccupationCookbook writer
Known forPublishing an early vegetarian cookbook
Notable workVegetable Cookery (1812)
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1805; died 1857)​
Children4, including Helen
RelativesWilliam Harvey (brother)

Martha Harvey Brotherton (born Martha Harvey; bapt. 1782 – 25 January 1861) was an English cookbook writer. She is best known as the author of Vegetable Cookery (1812), an early vegetarian cookbook associated with the Bible Christian Church in Salford. The book was published anonymously and later issued in several expanded editions. Brotherton attended the first annual meeting of the Vegetarian Society. She was married to Joseph Brotherton, a minister in the Bible Christian Church and Salford's first Member of Parliament.

Biography

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Early life and family

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Martha Harvey was baptised in 1782 in Whittington, Derbyshire, the daughter of Joseph Harvey.[a] She had several siblings. Her brother, William Harvey, became active in Salford's Bible Christian Church and in reform movements including the Vegetarian Society, temperance, and parliamentary reform. He served as Mayor of Salford in 1857 and 1858.[3]

On 12 March 1805, she married Joseph Brotherton (1783–1857) at Whittington Anglican Church, Derbyshire. The couple initially lived in Manchester before moving to Salford, where her husband inherited his father's cotton mill, became a minister of the Bible Christian Church, and later became Salford's first Member of Parliament. The couple had four children, including Helen.[3]

Vegetable Cookery

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Brotherton was associated with the Bible Christian Church as a minister's wife and as the author of Vegetable Cookery, published in 1812.[3][8] The book was originally published anonymously and was republished several times during the 19th century.[9][10]

Laura J. Miller and Emilie Hardman state that Brotherton's book guided some early 19th-century American readers in adopting vegetarianism.[11] Kathryn Gleadle describes the book as central to the early movement and as a basis for later vegetarian cookbooks.[12]

Vegetarian Society

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Brotherton attended the first annual meeting of the Vegetarian Society and other meetings of the society.[4]

Death

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Brotherton died of a heart attack on 25 January 1861 at her home in Pendleton, Salford, aged 78.[4][13][14] She was buried alongside her husband at Weaste Cemetery, Salford.[3] A statue was made for her by Matthew Noble.[4]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ↑ Sources vary regarding Brotherton's birth year, listing it as 1781,[2] 1783,[3][4] or 1784.[5] The Oxford Dictionary of Biography gives the year of her baptism as 1782 and her parents as Joseph and Martha Harvey (née Brotherton).[6] This identification of her mother as Martha is supported by her Weaste Cemetery Heritage Trail biography.[3] However, baptismal records from Whittington, Derbyshire, for the years 1781 to 1784 list only one Martha Harvey, who was baptised on 24 June 1782, with her parents listed as Joseph and Hannah Harvey.[7]

References

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  1. ↑ Aoyagi, Akiko; Shurtleff, William (7 March 2022). History of Vegetarianism and Veganism Worldwide (1430 BCE to 1969): Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook. Soyinfo Center. p. 1170. ISBN 978-1-948436-73-1.
  2. ↑ Phil (1 July 2023). "Whittington and a tale of two cookbooks". Whittington History – St Bartholomew's. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Biography: Martha Brotherton". Weaste Cemetery Heritage Trail. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Gregory, James Richard Thomas Elliott (May 2002). "Biographical Index of British Vegetarians and Food reformers of the Victorian Era". The Vegetarian Movement in Britain c.1840–1901: A Study of Its Development, Personnel and Wider Connections (PDF) (PhD thesis). Vol. 2. University of Southampton. pp. 19–20.
  5. ↑ "Biography: Helen Brotherton". Weaste Cemetery Heritage Trail. Retrieved 24 January 2025.
  6. ↑ Shapely, Peter (23 September 2004). "Brotherton, Joseph (1783–1857), Cowherdite Bible Christian minister and politician". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/3575. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  7. ↑ "Martha Harvey". Derbyshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812. Ancestry.com. 2017. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
  8. ↑ Phelps, Norm (2007). The Longest Struggle: Animal Advocacy from Pythagoras to PETA. New York: Lantern Books. p. 149. ISBN 978-1-59056-106-5.
  9. ↑ "Joseph & Martha Brotherton". V for Life. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
  10. ↑ Carlson, Laura (2018). "A Case for Kale: Vegetarianism in Victorian England". The Feast. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  11. ↑ Miller, Laura J.; Hardman, Emilie (2015). "By the Pinch and the Pound: Less and More Protest in American Vegetarian Cookbooks from the Nineteenth Century to the Present". In Baughman, James L.; Ratner-Rosenhagen, Jennifer; Danky, James P. (eds.). Protest on the Page: Essays on Print and the Culture of Dissent Since 1865. University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 114–115. ISBN 978-0-299-30284-9.
  12. ↑
  13. ↑ "Deaths". The Leeds Mercury. 29 January 1861. p. 4. Retrieved 25 January 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Deaths". The Morning Post. 29 January 1861. p. 8. Retrieved 25 January 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
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