Dr. Joshua Webster's English Diet Drink

Records of the proprietors of the recipe for Dr. Webster's diet drink, or Cerevisia Anglicana.

1798-1931

18 volumes and 20 files

Purchased from Patrick Pollak, 1994.

Joshua Webster (1709?-1801), MD, formulated his patent remedy "Dr. Webster's diet drink", or "Cerevisia Anglicana" in 1742. Shortly before his death Webster gave the recipe to Samuel Slee, a wine merchant in Southwark, whence it was inherited by his son, Edward Slee (d. c.1836). In 1835 Edward Slee entered into partnership with one George Pike (d. 1854), who also married Slee's daughter, Eliza. After Pike's death, Eliza Pike and her son George Pike junior (b. 1835) continued trading as Edward Slee and Co., based at successive locations in the London area - Kennington, Lee, Harlington and Hounslow. Edward Slee and Co. seem to have ceased trading shortly after the turn of the century.

Described in typescript supplements to the Library's published manuscript catalogues.