HOW TO DECIPHER AND STUDY OLD
DOCUMENTS.
[Illustration]
_THE KEY TO THE FAMILY DEED CHEST_
HOW TO DECIPHER
AND
STUDY OLD DOCUMENTS
_BEING A GUIDE TO THE READING OF
ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS_
BY
E. E. THOYTS
(MRS. JOHN HAUTENVILLE COPE)
_WITH AN INTRODUCTION_
BY
C. TRICE MARTIN
ASSISTANT KEEPER OF H.M. RECORDS
SECOND EDITION
LONDON
ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW
1903
[Illustration]
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
Just ten years ago this little volume made its first appearance.
Although many books on similar subjects have been written in that
time, none have exactly given the same information, and this second
edition has been decided upon. Additions and corrections to bring
the book up to date have been made, but much still remains, and must
remain, imperfect in so small a work on so large a subject, and the
present pages only profess to help beginners over some of the initial
difficulties they will meet with.
It has been urged that handwriting and its characteristics have nothing
to do with old deeds, but careful study of every line and letter is
useful, especially with regard to private letters, or when any question
arises as to whether the manuscripts are genuine or forgeries. That is
why the second chapter, on handwriting and descriptions of old ink,
paper, and paper marks and seals, was written, for all such items
_are_ of great importance.
A recent celebrated trial (the Shipway case, in which an old register
was altered) shows that careful attention to minute details is
necessary. Parish registers have not, and are not, at the present
moment protected against frauds of this kind, which are far less common
than might be supposed.
Old deeds are now bought and sold; it is a trade quite as much as
that in old books. Some years ago, in Edinburgh, a number of clever
forgeries were sold as genuine, which if they had been so would have
cleared up a historical question of great importance.
Many friends who helped me when I first wrote the book are, alas! dead;
only their letters remain, and from these I have used extracts in
revising this edition.
Mr. Trice Martin has most kindly read it through and criticised it, as
he did ten years ago, and if mistakes still remain, I trust my readers
will be lenient. It must, however, be remembered that I am writing only
about the class of deeds which are usually met with in old houses, and
not attempting to describe every description of charter or deed.
EMMA ELIZABETH COPE.
130, HYDE PARK MANSIONS, W.
_September, 1903._
[Illustration]
AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
In the following pages I have tried to describe the things which
puzzled me when, as a beginner, I first essayed to read and understand
the old records of bygone times. Written in a language I knew not,
relating to customs no longer existing, all was strange and unfamiliar.
I toiled on; by degrees light dawned and the difficulties melted
away. The knowledge thus gained I have endeavoured, in all humility,
to write down as a possible guide and help to others who may, like
myself, prefer to follow antiquarian research by means of old deeds and
other manuscripts, as being the original source and most trustworthy
fountain-head of knowledge, and by this means to avoid as much as
possible repeating the assertions and mistakes of previous writers.
In the chapter on Paleography I have named the books which were
my guides, and in these pages I have tried to supply information
supplementary to what is already printed on the subject, rather than
repeat what has previously been explained. The growing fashion for all
kinds of antiquarianism creates a desire for books treating upon such
subjects, and this has induced me to write this book.
E. E. THOYTS.
SULHAMSTEAD,
_May, 1893_.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION xi
I. HINTS TO THE BEGINNER 1
II. CHARACTER BY HANDWRITING 14
III. SAXON, NORMAN-FRENCH AND LAW LATIN 28
IV. OLD DEEDS 41
V. LAW TECHNICALITIES 53
VI. MANOR AND COURT ROLLS 70
VII. MONASTIC CHARTERS 86
VIII. PARISH REGISTERS 103
IX. PARISH OFFICERS AND THEIR ACCOUNT BOOKS 112
X. BOOKS ON PALEOGRAPHY 127
XI. OLD LETTERS 135
XII. ABBREVIATIONS, ETC. 142
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
SIGNATURE 23
EXTRACT FROM DOMESDAY 29
NORMAN-FRENCH DEED 34
FORM OF FINE 56
SHERIFF’S ROLL (NEVILLE MSS.) 65
COURT ROLL 76
ARABIC NUMERALS 79
READING ABBEY CHARTER 92
READING ABBEY CHARTULARY 94
PAPER-MAKERS’ INITIALS 136
SOME QUAINT LETTERS FROM OLD PARISH REGISTERS 137
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
INTRODUCTION.
Books written to teach any branch of human knowledge are, in most
cases, written by persons who have long known and used the knowledge
which they impart, and, perhaps for that reason, have more or less
forgotten the steps of the ladder up which they have climbed; but in
this case the process has been so recent that the difficulties and
dangers of each step have been remembered, and the reader accordingly
warned against them.
The meaning of the various kinds of documents which are likely to be
found among the title-deeds of an estate, or among the archives of a
parish or a corporation, are described without needless technicalities,
in a practical way, which will appeal to those who begin to work among
such material without previous knowledge.
The first step, of course, is to learn to read. This wants
perseverance and a quick eye, but regular practice will soon enable
the student to read any ordinary documents, which at first seemed
utterly unintelligible, and gradually the power of understanding really
difficult and obscure MSS. will be acquired. But this first step must
be thoroughly mastered, for to attempt to get information from old
writings without thoroughly knowing the forms of the letters, and the
different systems of abbreviations and contractions, would be like
trying to keep accounts without knowing how to add up a column of
figures.
And indeed paleography is the foundation of all history. There may be
historians, like the late Mr. Freeman, who have but little knowledge
of the science (he, I believe, boasted of his inability to read a
manuscript), but then such writers rely on the paleographic knowledge
of others, who have edited the manuscripts which they desire to use,
and they have, or ought to have, sufficient scholarship to judge
which are the best editions, and even occasionally to detect editors’
mistakes.
But an acquaintance with this branch of knowledge is often of the
greatest use to biographers and historians. It is much better, for
instance, to be able to judge whether a certain document is of the age
which it professes, or in whose hand a draft of a treaty is, than to
have to accept the opinion of someone else.
The mistakes made through want of this knowledge are common, and
sometimes very amusing. Familiar enough is the old story of the parish
priest in the time of King Henry VIII., who in the canon of the Mass,
in the prayer after taking the wine, read the word ‘_sumpsimus_’
as _mumpsimus_, because he had a thirteenth-century missal in
which _s_ and _m_ are much alike, and refused to alter his
mistake when it was pointed out to him. It was referred to by King
Henry VIII. in his speech to the Parliament in 1545, and, in fact, this
ignorant priest has ‘made himself an everlasting name’ for conservative
stupidity.
In more recent times, the historian of one of our beautiful
north-country abbeys talks of a gift of a silver chest by the founder
in the eleventh century. The reader wonders what this chest could have
been--was it a native work or imported? was it some ecclesiastical
ornament or merely a strong box? But on turning to the document on
which the account is based, the meaning is clear. It was not a chest
of silver, but an ordinary coin known as a mark of silver. The MS.
reads _unāmarcāargenti_. The writer of the book had not noticed
the contraction over the first _a_, divided the words wrongly, and
read it _unam arcam_, instead of _unam marcam_.
In another similar book the story is narrated of the ill-treatment
by a forester of an abbot whose house was near a royal forest. The
abbot was no doubt like the monk who made the celebrated pilgrimage to
Canterbury--
‘An outrydere that lovede venerye.
* * * * *
He yaf nat of that text a pulled hen
That seith that hunters been nat holy men.’
And perhaps the forester had good reason to complain of him. But in
the account of the quarrel, the forester is said to have gone into the
abbot’s kitchen and taken away his cabbages--not very likely things
for a forester to take, as he probably would have found something
far better worth carrying off. However, on looking at the MS. it
appears almost certain that what was read as _chous_ is really
_chens_, that is, _chiens_. In fact, they were the
‘Grehoundes he hadde as swifte as fowel in flight,
For priking and for hunting for the hare,’
who were perhaps lying before the fire asleep after a long afternoon’s
coursing.
In the same case it is said that the forester’s treatment of the
tenants on one of the abbey farms is so bad that no one dare die there;
it is suggested, because the forester would not allow anyone to come
to administer the last consolations of religion. But the words _de
murir_, on which the observation is based, are merely a careless
scribe’s writing of _demeurer_.
In another book farmers are represented as using stones for fuel, which
are suggested to have been coal; but this results from mis-reading
_pet^arum_ (peat), as if it were _pet^arum_, a contracted form
of _petrarum_ (stones).
The spreading desire to know something of paleography is very
remarkable, and is much to be commended. For all persons who interest
themselves in the documents to which they may have access in the
possession of private persons, or in repositories not generally known,
are helping in the grand work of making clear the laws and customs
and mode of living of our ancestors, and thus constantly come across
information, not to be found in our more public collections of records,
which often throws light on many dark passages of history.
C. T. MARTIN.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
HOW TO DECIPHER AND STUDY OLD DOCUMENTS.
CHAPTER I.
HINTS TO BEGINNERS.
Fashion changes in everything; but these alterations go on so
imperceptibly, so gradually, that ofttimes we fail to recognise their
progress except by glancing backwards into the past. But the fashion
of handwriting and its changes are very forcibly brought home to us
when confronted for the first time with some old deed or paper; and a
feeling of helplessness reduces the amateur to the verge of despair as
the pages of unintelligible hieroglyphics are spread out, as unfamiliar
as Sanscrit or Egyptian characters. But perseverance conquers all
difficulties.
Every generation has its own particular type of writing. Compare, for
instance, any bundle of letters taken, hap-hazard, out of an old desk
or secrétaire; it is quite easy to sort them into bundles in sequence
of dates, and also guess accurately the age and position of the writers.
The flowing Italian hand, used by educated women early in the last
century, changed with fashion into the freer style of the succeeding
generation; this in the third generation had further developed into
the bold, decisive, almost masculine writing adopted by the more
strong-minded females of the latter end of the nineteenth century.
Of course, school-teaching is responsible to a certain extent for
handwriting. Our University men of to-day all, with few exceptions,
use a neat scholarly form of writing, free from flourishes, and with
simple capital letters and the small broken-backed Greek letter ε.
Compared with the scholar’s, the soldier’s writing is bolder and
rounder, while the clerk’s is still more distinct in type in its open
lettering, interspersed with curls and twists. So with most professions
it will be found that each has special characteristics; but these are
liable to change according to circumstances; thus, the clerk will
form his letters less distinctly after the need of great legibility
no longer compels him to carefulness. Self-education will often alter
a vulgar, ill-formed writing to a better, more studied style; and
writing is the clearest proof of both bodily and mental condition, for
in cases of paralysis or mental aberration the doctor takes it as a
certain guide. The writing of feeble-minded persons is like that of a
scarcely-educated child.
Looking back to the days when writing was a profession of itself, it
can easily be understood how it is that we find less variety among
old writings. For in those days, before printing was discovered, or
at least but imperfectly executed and understood, all books had to
be produced by hand, and were the work either of paid scribes, whose
duty it was to reproduce copies of well-known authors; or else copied
out by clerks or private secretaries at the dictation of the authors
themselves, who could seldom spare the time to commit their ideas to
paper, or, even if they did so, it was customary to have additional
copies made by professed scribes. Unacquainted with the subjects of
the books, and copying merely from verbal dictation, it is no wonder
that mistakes and misunderstandings often occurred, especially in
the spelling of place and personal names; for one man reading aloud
to several scribes, each would write down the names and words as
they sounded to his individual sense of hearing, for the constant
interruption necessary to ensure complete accuracy would cause the
process to be tedious and very lengthy.
Private correspondence, even, was carried on as a profession; writing
shops existed up to a comparatively late period; at present, in
out-of-the-way streets in London, one reads the notice ‘Letters written
here,’ though this generally means that letters may be sent to that
address.
Authors who indited or dictated their own books had them afterwards
transcribed neatly for preservation, and probably destroyed the
original notes, for of these comparatively few, if any, exist.
All the earliest scribes had a special education for their profession,
being sent to some monastery for that purpose; hence they were
either foreigners, or educated under foreign monks, either French or
Italian, and the effect of this teaching is clearly demonstrated by
the similitude which exists all over Europe between manuscripts of the
early Middle Ages.
In England the Norman Conquest overruled most of the previous customs
and styles. Vast crowds of Normans emigrated continuously to our
shores. This went on more or less for at least three or four centuries,
and then prejudice against foreigners asserted itself, and the Saxon
element, which still remained among the lower classes of the people,
gained the ascendant. In the reign of Henry V. alien priories were
suppressed, and foreign monks and priests no longer travelled backwards
and forwards from the Norman abbeys to the junior houses or cells in
England. The rich merchants, who resorted here from the Low Countries
and Germany, brought with them their own customs and fashions; and at
this time will first be noticed the use of a written character, like
the modern German, which steadily came more and more into use until the
end of the seventeenth century, when it died out and the style altered
to a rounder, freer hand.
So long as education was almost entirely monastic, or at least
conducted by teachers trained in monastic institutions, we find (as we
should naturally expect to do) a regularity, carefulness and formality
in the handwriting of the period; but so soon as England had shaken off
the authority of Rome and the educated communities had been scattered
and disbanded, a marked change took place in the quantity and quality
of all kinds of writing. The monks and nuns, rendered homeless by
the Reformation, returned to their native villages, thus spreading
education among all classes and creating a desire after learning. But
the primary cause of the alteration in handwriting, so very marked in
the sixteenth century, was perhaps attributable to the introduction
of the art of printing, which naturally was fatal to handwriting
as a profession. The scribe was no longer required to multiply the
author’s productions; so that lawyers and public office clerks only
remained out of the large class who had formerly earned their living
as professional writers. In the actual writing, also, a change took
place. The old elaborate letters were supplanted by the simple capitals
copied from the printer’s blocks. Some day, maybe, writing will die
out altogether; every year fresh improvements and inventions are
increasing; now type-writers and multiplying machines are used in place
of handwriting in many offices, while sooner or later typing by machine
will be universal.
A hundred years ago, very few if any of the labourers could either
read or write; even now, in out-of-the-way country places, there exist
people ignorant of these (to us) necessary arts. The marriage registers
of the eighteenth century prove to us the ignorance of the country
folk; frequently neither the contracting parties nor their witnesses
could write their names, using instead either some eccentric monogram
bearing a faint resemblance to initials--a memory perhaps of a bygone
and very slight amount of teaching--or oftener still we find in lieu of
name the old Christian cross, which has been in use by the illiterate
from Saxon times as a pledge of good faith and consent.
Previous to the nineteenth century, education in country places was
either altogether absent or provided out of the bounty of the squire or
parson, the teacher being some old ignorant person prevented by age or
bodily infirmity from pursuing active labour, and whose qualifications
were merely a smattering of the ‘three R’s,’ which, with plain sewing,
was the whole of his or her useful though scanty répertoire. Children
then were sent out to work at the age of nine or ten years, and earlier
if anybody could be found to employ them in service. When once placed
out, they had no opportunities of gaining further book knowledge,
and soon forgot the little they had learnt for want of practice or
stimulation, nor had they sufficient mental capacity to study by
themselves, except in very exceptional cases of natural genius.
If this was the state of things within the memory of those still alive,
we can well believe how very limited was the knowledge of handwriting
some hundreds of years ago, and can more fully understand that the
scribe was a very important personage, and took great pride in his work.
It is very rare to find mistakes or erasures in the lettering of old
charters. Varieties of spelling occur everywhere; a name is often
found spelt two or three different ways on the same page; but this is
easily explained if the work was written from dictation, especially if
pronounced to or by a foreigner. Our English language being so full of
unexpected variations of spelling, it is no wonder that names of people
and places suffered at the hands of a transcriber unacquainted with
the localities, and who merely wrote down the words as they sounded to
him. The actual spelling of words remained fairly constant. Certainly
to us they look very curious, for English orthography has undergone
innumerable changes; in course of time new words are being coined,
and old words alter not only in spelling, but also in meaning and
significance. If we wish for an example of Old English phraseology,
we have our present version of the Bible--which, being translated
into English in the seventeenth century, now sounds quaint, and in
many parts the sense of the words is a matter of dispute. If it be
compared with the Revised Version the changes which have taken place in
our language in the two past centuries become very evident. All this
must be borne in mind when the task of transcribing and translating
old writing is undertaken, and allowance must be made for all such
alterations both in style and spelling.
It has been said that a knowledge of Latin is indispensable to the
would-be transcriber of old deeds; this is not really the case for
ordinary antiquarian research, for the meaning can be discovered easily
with only very slight knowledge. Legal Latin consists so entirely of
set forms that when once these forms are familiar to the reader, they
are without any difficulty recognised, and are so little liable to
any variations that they are easily rendered into English. The most
important points being a correct and accurate attention to the names of
people and places, with the descriptions of the localities referred to.
As the use of Latin for legal transactions almost entirely superseded
the Norman-French language after the reign of Edward III. (although
it is an open question whether deeds were not duplicated into the two
languages), very few old deeds are met with in the latter language, and
those few are usually so well written and legible that they can easily
be understood with the help of a slight knowledge of modern French.
Indeed, a transcriber’s work properly consists chiefly in correctly
putting into modern handwriting the deeds which are only illegible
to those unfamiliar with the handwriting; in consequence an actual
acquaintance with the Latin grammar is less important than a correct
eye, quick to note every minute difference in letters. Every stroke
of the pen means something; bars or curves are the representatives of
absent words or syllables, and are never dashed down hap-hazard or
by accident. Therefore it is possible to understand the meaning of
the abbreviated portions correctly, although extension with absolute
grammatical correctness can never be ensured without study of the
language and a knowledge of its grammar.
One of the best methods of learning to read courthand is first to
devote a short time to the study of shorthand; any system will do,
it being merely a means of training the eye and brain into speedily
noticing small shades of difference, undetected except by comparison.
For in all kinds of shorthand the least stroke or dot, or even a change
in the position of a line, will entirely alter the spelling or meaning
of a word.
Next, I would advise the careful study of an old deed, one of those
written late in the seventeenth or early in the eighteenth century,
because these deeds give the phraseology or form of sentences, and
are often written in English in a fairly clear hand, freer from
contractions than earlier manuscripts, and the beginner has so many
new things to discover and learn that it is well to commence by not
attempting too much at the first start. An acquaintance with the style
of words used in legal language is a good groundwork to commence with.
Spread out the parchment before you; never mind the fact that only a
word or two, or even only a chance letter here and there catches your
eye. Then set to work to compare the letters of the words you do know
with the letters in other words which at the commencement looked so
strange to you.
It was in this way that Egyptian hieroglyphics were first successfully
studied.
Remember that three consonants seldom come together; no word is formed
without the help of one or more vowels; the final letter or letters
more often supply a clue than the capital letter or beginning syllable,
especially in the so-called courthands.
Beware of too imaginative guesses. Although this fault is easily
remedied, still, it is better to spell a word out letter by letter,
however unintelligible and depressing the result at first may be. It
is so easy to take a name or word for granted, and an idea once seized
upon is not quickly eradicated, and may bring about absurd results and
deductions.
Do not ponder too long over a word which puzzles you, but go on,
leaving gaps in your copy with a stroke underneath corresponding with
or leaving sufficient space for the missing word. These spaces can then
be filled in afterwards, when the general sense of the document has
been mastered, and the aspect of the particular style of writing has
become familiar. Then it will be found that words hitherto seemingly
unintelligible resolve themselves into readable form, and although
apparently impossible to decipher at the first reading, later on they
present no difficulty. A little practice and patience soon overcome the
difficulties of the first start, and after that the progress is rapid.
To begin by learning a variety of old alphabets seems to me so much
waste of time, although it would be a valuable groundwork to commence
with. The true alphabet for beginners lies in the contracted words,
whose missing portions must be supplied by the reader from the few
letters given, which are often not even one connected syllable, but
instead merely one or two letters out of the missing syllable clustered
together.
The reason for this style of writing was to save time and material.
With use, it grew into a complete system, a language of its own. At the
time it was penned, these contractions were no doubt perfectly familiar
to all, just as our modern abbreviations are. Of these last there are
more contractions in use nowadays than would at first be realized--our
daily correspondence is full of them; these may have originated from
the older system of contractions, relics of it, still left lingering on.
A few examples of modern abbreviations will not be out of place here,
as showing that a contracted form of writing is not so very difficult
or extraordinary after all.
=&=, and, derived from the Latin _et_; the second example,
which is still in use, can be traced in very old documents from et,
till gradually it assumed its modern shape.
=M^r=, mister or master; =S^r= for sir was formerly in common
use.
=C^o=, company; =C^{ie}=, _compagnie_ (French).
=etc.=, derived from the first three letters of the Latin word
_etcetera_.
The words ‘with, which, whereof, where,’ etc., were formerly
abbreviated; also =yr= for your, =ye= the, and many others
now obsolete.
Pounds, shillings and pence we still designate by the Latin £ s. d.
The long word ‘affectionate’ is seldom written in full; so, too, with
many other words there are recognised forms of contraction, and when
this is borne in mind the abbreviations of old deeds appear in quite a
different light, and we attack their difficulties with less dread of
failure.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]