| Elizabeth Horsell | |
| Birth Name: | Elizabeth Gillett |
| Birth Place: | Bromyard, Herefordshire, England |
| Baptised: | 27 June 1798 |
| Death Date: | (aged 76) |
| Death Place: | Lee, Kent, England |
| Occupation: | Activist, writer |
| Known For: | Vegetarianism and temperance activism |
| Notable Works: | The Penny Domestic Assistant and Guide to Vegetarian Cookery (1850) |
Elizabeth Horsell (nee Gillett; bapt. 27 June 1798 – 12 June 1874) was an English activist and writer. She advocated for vegetarianism and temperance, and was the author of an early vegan cookbook, The Penny Domestic Assistant and Guide to Vegetarian Cookery. Horsell was married to the publisher and fellow activist William Horsell, with whom she operated a hydropathic infirmary in Ramsgate.
Elizabeth Gillett was born in 1798 in Bromyard, Herefordshire, and was baptised on 27 June 1878.[1] She married William Horsell in Vowchurch, on 30 June 1834.[2]
She was involved in the temperance movement from the 1840s and was invited to give a lecture at Dr John Lee's Peace and Temperance Festival. She took part in vegetarian meetings in London, along with her husband,[3] and gave frequent lectures both inside London, such as at the Talfourd Hotel,[4] and further afield.[5] Horsell moved with her husband to Ramsgate in 1846, where they operated a hydropathic infirmary.[6]
In 1850, she authored a vegan cookbook, The Penny Domestic Assistant and Guide to Vegetarian Cookery, which was published by her husband. After his death in 1863, Horsell continued to contribute to the vegetarian movement. She also operated an all-female boarding school, with spaces for vegetarian boarders.
Horsell died at the age of 76, on 12 June 1874 at Sydenham Cottage, in Lee, Kent.[7] [8] She was buried in Lewisham on 18 June.[9]