Martha Brotherton

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Martha Brotherton
Vegetable Cookery 1833.png
Fourth edition title page of Brotherton's Vegetable Cookery
Born
Martha Harvey

Whittington, Derbyshire, England
Baptised1782
Died(1861-01-25)25 January 1861 (aged 78)
Pendleton, Salford, England
Resting place Weaste Cemetery, Salford
OccupationCookbook writer
Known forPublishing the first vegetarian cookbook
Notable work Vegetable Cookery (1812)
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1805;died 1857)​
Children4, including Helen
Relatives William Harvey (brother)

Martha Harvey Brotherton [1] (born Martha Harvey;

bapt. 1782 – 25 January 1861) was an English cookbook writer best known as the author of Vegetable Cookery (1812), the earliest known vegetarian cookbook. A committed member of the Bible Christian Church in Salford, she promoted the church's principles of meat-free and alcohol-free living through her writing. Her book, published anonymously and later issued in several expanded editions, has been recognised as a foundational text in the history of vegetarianism. She was also involved in the early activities of the Vegetarian Society, attending its first annual meeting. She was married to Joseph Brotherton, a minister in the Bible Christian Church and Salford's first Member of Parliament.

Contents

Biography

Early life and family

Martha Harvey was baptised on 1782 in Whittington, Derbyshire, the daughter of Joseph Harvey. [note 1] She had several siblings. Her brother, William Harvey, became a notable figure in Salford's Bible Christian Church and various social reform movements, including the Vegetarian Society, temperance, and parliamentary reform. William also 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 resided in Manchester before moving to Salford, where her husband inherited his father's cotton mill, became a minister of the Bible Christian Church, and eventually Salford's first Member of Parliament. The couple had four children, including Helen. [3]

Vegetable Cookery

Brotherton played a significant role in the Bible Christian Church, both as a minister's wife, [3] and as the author of the first vegetarian cookbook, Vegetable Cookery , in 1812. [8] The book was originally published anonymously [9] and was republished several times throughout the 19th-century. [10]

Historians have observed that Brotherton's book guided early 19th-century Americans in adopting vegetarianism. [11] Kathryn Gleadle notes that the book was crucial to the movement, forming the basis for later vegetarian cookbooks. [12]

Vegetarian Society

Brotherton attended the first annual meeting of the Vegetarian Society, as well as other meetings. [4]

Death

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

Notes

  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 Brotherton, who was baptised on 24 June 1782, with her parents listed as Joseph and Hannah Harvey. [7]

References

  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 (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. Lantern Books. p. 149. ISBN   978-1-59056-106-5.
  9. ↑ "Joseph & Martha Brotherton". V for Life. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
  10. ↑ "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. ↑ Gleadle, Kathryn (2003). "'The Age of Physiological Reformers': Rethinking Gender and Domesticity in the Age of Reform". In Burns, Arthur; Innes, Joanna (eds.). Rethinking the Age of Reform: Britain 1780–1850. Past and Present Publications. Cambridge University Press. pp. 200–219. ISBN   978-0-521-82394-4 . Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  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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