Biography

Margaret Baker refers to her "Aunt Corbett" (Sloane 2485, fols 12v and 35r) and identifies herself as Lettice Corbett's cousin (Sloane 2486, fols 60r, 61v), but her precise relationship to other individuals identified in the two manuscripts is not clear. We do know that the Knollys and Corbett family members mentioned in the two manuscripts are connected by marriage through Lettice Corbett. The Complete Baronetage (G[eorge] E. C[okayne], Exeter: William Pollard, 1902, p.33 indicates that by 1645, Sir John Corbett of Stoke, Shropshire, had married Laetitia Knollys, daughter of Sir Robert Knollys of Stanford and afterwards of Rotherfield Greys, Oxfordshire. Laetitia Corbett's mother-in-law Anne, known in her time as the "good lady Corbett", is probably the Lady Corbett and Anne Corbett to whom several receipts (Sloane 2485, fols 14r, 16r, and 16v) are attributed. Laetitia Corbett died a widow in 1669, leaving behind a will, Public Record Office PROB 11/333/89, fols 180r-181r. Although she does not mention her receipts, she is interested in the fate of her books, and indicates that she will be distributing some of them to recipients unspecified in the will. Corbett also refers in this will to her uncle Baker, making it probable that Margaret Baker, the compiler of MSS Sloane 2485-6, was Corbett's first cousin.

British Library: MS Sloane 2485
Cookery and medical receipts by Margaret Baker. (1650)
Margaret Baker (Compiler)
Short entry.

British Library: MS Sloane 2486
Receipt book in two parts containing mainly medical and some culinary receipts (1650)
Margaret Baker (compiler, scribe)