Elizabeth E. (Elizabeth Ellicott) Lea

Born in 1793 in what became Ellicott City, Maryland, she came from two prominent Quaker families: the Ellicotts and the Brookes. Modern library and archival notes describe her as the daughter of George Ellicott and Elizabeth Brooke, and place her within the milling and farming world that shaped the region's food culture.

She is remembered for Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers, first published in the 1840s and later reissued in several editions. The book blends recipes with practical household advice, offering a vivid picture of how food was cooked, preserved, and managed in early American homes.

Later editions and reprints, including A Quaker Woman's Cookbook, helped introduce her work to modern readers. Today, she is valued not just as a cookbook author, but as a careful recorder of everyday life, domestic knowledge, and regional cooking in 19th-century America.