Have you experienced the excitement of seeing an old document for the first time, only to be mystified by ‘flowery’ handwriting? Early English manuscripts can seem a daunting prospect, a maze of strokes and flourishes. Archaic spellings, different dating conventions and abbreviations add to the challenge, and some documents were written in Latin until 1733. The good news is that with knowledge of past letter forms, and practice, it becomes easier to unlock the vital clues of our past.

A brief history of early handwriting

Palaeography is the study of old handwriting. The word itself is derived from the Greek words paleos (‘old’) and grapho (‘writing’), translating literally as ‘old writing’. Older handwriting styles were influenced by the writing materials available. For example, the use of quills, pens and ink led to longer downstrokes and shorter upstrokes. The cost of vellum (derived from calf skin), parchment and paper – the latter introduced in the late 15th century – resulted in scribes shortening words and trying to cram as many words onto a sheet as possible.

During the medieval period, writing was a very costly and time-consuming skill limited to writing masters drawn mostly from the clergy. The main handwriting style was book hand, a compact style used in manuscripts and liturgical works like books of hours, beautifully illustrated prayer books that were personalised for wealthy owners. Other key handwriting styles of the medieval period include the more angular court hand (or charter hand), which can be seen on borough charters and other documents stating rights of jurisdiction. In the 15th century, central government departments introduced their own set hands for official business e.g. chancery hand.

From the 1500s, writing became standard education for administrators, merchants and the landowning classes. While other handwriting styles were in use from the 1500s, including italic and court hand, secretary hand was used to transact many forms of official business from around 1500–1800. It was used in parish records, wills, inventories, court records and many more. It is a useful style to understand for anyone doing family, social and local history.

Secretary hand letters

The beauty of secretary hand is that it was a set script for official documents and therefore has an alphabet of letters that can be learnt and decoded. Here is a summary of trickier and distinctive lower case letter forms in secretary hand:

• ‘a’ could sometimes begin with a long straight stroke leaning to the right
• ‘c’ was written in two strokes and flat on the top, looking more like a modern ‘r’. The capital version is a favourite… think hot cross buns!
• ‘e’ was often shown reversed, or written like a flat-topped ‘c’
• ‘g’ can be tricky, as it was written in two strokes, which included a horizontal top line. It can be mistaken for ‘y’ but the two letters are clearly distinguished by the direction of the descending stroke below the line: ‘g’ curves to the left and ‘y’ to the right
• ‘h’ is easily recognisable with a flourish descending below the line, which curves to the left, although it is not always written in the same way
• ‘k’ looked something crossed between a modern ‘b’ and ‘k’, with the kick shown horizontally
• ‘r’ looked more like a squashed ‘u’or modern ‘w’, but it could also be written as a backward ‘3’ or even like a modern ‘z’
• ‘s’ was written in different ways, either with a straight downward stroke descending below the line, or a loopier version like secretary hand‘f ’, without the cross stroke
• the letters ‘i’ and ‘j’ and ‘u’ and ‘v’were interchangeable in secretary hand, and in these instances careful reading of the other letters in the word is crucial to meaning.
• Be aware of the use of single ‘minim’ strokes for the letters ‘u’, ‘n’,‘m’, ‘i’, which are made up of a single downstroke of the pen. It can be confusing to tell these letters apart when adjacent to each other. You can count the minim strokes to work out the right letter combination, so ‘i’ would have one stroke, ‘m’ three strokes, and so on. If you are in any doubt about a letter combination, work out the other letters in the word first.

Spellings and abbreviations

Spellings were not standardised during the period 1500–1800, and therefore many words and spellings in secretary hand have fallen out of modern usage, e.g. ‘hys’ instead of his, ‘buryed’ instead of buried. To complicate matters further, it was not unusual for a word to be spelt differently by the same scribe. Recently, I came across ‘payer’ and ‘paire’ as variables of pair in a 17th century Welsh inventory of goods. Words may also have had a different usage or application depending on the document. I came across a lovely use of ‘lumber’ in an inventory, used here as a catch-all word for items of little value.

It was common for scribes to add extra ‘e’s onto words, such as ‘hee’, ‘moste’ and ‘seldome’, as well as to remove and add consonants e.g. ‘sonne’ instead of son. The use of phonetic spelling and regional dialect can result in some interesting and creative spellings, such as ‘meitt’ instead of meet and ‘seymyng’ instead of seeming. Where you are unsure of your reading, it can help to say the word aloud.

Scribes writing in Latin and English used a number of different abbreviations and contractions, whereby letters at the beginning, middle and end of words are omitted. Sometimes, a special symbol was used to denote abbreviated letters, including crossed ‘p’s for per/par/por. Other common abbreviations of the period are shown with either small, superscript letters at the end of a word, or with a final flourish on the end of the word.

Missing letters in the middle of a word were often signposted with a horizontal line above the word, known as a ‘tilde’, which can be easy to confuse with the downward flourish of a letter on the line above. A fascinating document survives from c.1597 listing accusations against ‘witches’ (see picture). It reveals uses of tildes, quirky spellings and trickier letter forms, not to mention prejudice against women!

Useful tips

While there was an alphabet for secretary hand, scribes had their own quirks that transgressed standard letter forms. Different styles of secretary hand developed over time, ranging from the more upright style to a speedier joined-up and sloped version.

Therefore, knowing a little about the context, function and structure of a document, and what it may tell us, is just as important as breaking down words into individual letters. For example, most early wills begin with the phrase ‘In the name of God Amen’, followed by the name and occupation of the deceased, as well as their state of mind and body at the time of writing. Knowing this phrase allows you to identify names and letter forms, which you can use to decipher words and letters elsewhere. The same can be said for any names or dates you are looking for in a document.

If you are finding a document tricky, it is a good idea to make a note of letter forms as you find them to help identify any quirks of the pen. You can also try covering up letters you are not looking at to isolate any difficult letters, as well reading the word backwards. Sometimes it is helpful to look at adjacent letters to make sense of taxing ones, but beware of mentally filling in letters that are not there. Palaeography requires us to train our brains to see every letter, rather than the word as a whole.

Of course, some words may still elude you. Even the most practised readers of old handwriting get stuck. The condition of a document, ink smudges, legibility and other factors outside your control can also mean that some words will remain a tantalising mystery!