1623-1684?

British schoolteacher and writer, whose name is well known to collectors of books on cookery and the domestic arts as the first woman to publish a cookbook. Left an orphan at a young age, Woolley found work as a schoolmistress and governess before attaining the post of stewardess and secretary for an unnamed woman. She eventually married and was widowed, about which time she published her first book, The Ladies' Directory (1661). Her four subsequent books (and their later editions) were a curious mixture of etiquette rules and behavior in society, the art of letter-writing, cooking recipes, first aid instructions, and education advice for girls' governesses and others seeking domestic positions.