John Willis (Shorthand Part 5)

Summary:
John Willis (abt. 1575—1625) is considered the father of modern shorthand. He received his Bachelor in Divinity from Cambridge in 1603, and was appointed rector of Bentley Parva, Essex, in 1606.

John Willis first published “Art of Stenographie” in 1602. The only existing copies are in the British Museum and the Bodleian Library. The book went through fourteen editions. The eighth edition, published in 1623, was the last edition before his death. The fourteenth edition was published in 1647.

John Willis Contributions:
   1. First Shorthand Alphabet
   2. First to Describe the Phonetic Nature of Shorthand
   3. First Method of Vowel Expression


1602 Alphabet:

From "Art of Stenographie" by John Willis (1602)

Phonetic Nature of Shorthand:
From the “Art of Stenographie:”

“It is to be observed that this art prescribeth the writing of words, not according to their orthography as they are written, but according to their sound, as they are pronounced, observing their pronunciation in the shortest manner.”

“In every word those letters are to be omitted which are but lightly or not all sounded, whether they be vowels or consonants.”

Unfortunately, John Willis' system was not truly phonetic.  The system could better be described as the omission of silent letters.


Vowel Expression:
Vowels were expressed by "Vowel Mode:" a disjoining of a succeeding consonant and placing it against the preceding consonant in a particular position. Different positions represented different vowels. Consonants with no intervening vowel were joined at the end ("---" position).

From "Art of Stenographie" by John Willis (1602)

Word Examples:

Resources:
1. The Dictionary of National Biography (1909, Vol. XX1, pgs. 489-90)
2. History of Shorthand by Isaac Pitman (1891)
3. Historical Account of the Rise and Fall of Shorthand by James Henry Lewis (1816)
4. The History of Short-hand Writing by Matthias Levy (1862)
5. The Bibliography of Shorthand by by John Westby-Gibson (1887)
6. The Story of British Shorthand by Edward H. Butler (1951)