Elizabeth Moxon

Elizabeth Moxon was an English writer active in the mid-18th century, best known for English Housewifry. She is generally associated with Yorkshire, especially Pontefract, and is often described as one of the early women who helped establish English culinary writing.

First published in 1741, English Housewifry gathered more than 400 recipes and practical household instructions. The book was widely read and reprinted many times, which suggests it reached far beyond its original local audience and became an important part of British cookery history.

Very little about her personal life has been firmly documented, which makes her surviving work all the more valuable. What remains clear is that her writing preserved the tastes, habits, and domestic know-how of her time in a way that still interests readers and food historians today.