Thomas Shelton (Shorthand Part 7)

Summary:
While Thomas Shelton (1601 to 1650) came from an affluent Norfolk family, he himself was not of independent means.

Thomas Shelton published “Short Writing” in 1626 (2nd Ed 1630; 3rd Ed 1636). Shelton improved his shorthand system and published his most well known work “Tachygraphy” in 1638. It was republished in 1641 along with a primer, “A Tutor of Tachygraphy” (1642). Tachygraphy was popular with more than twenty editions between 1641 and 1710. Thomas Shelton published “Zeiglographia” in 1650.

Tachygraphy Alphabet:

The Tachygraphy alphabet is based on the 1627 alphabet of Edmond Willis. The alphabet signs were written all the same size, unlike the previous systems where the first alphabet sign was written large than the rest to indicate where the outline began.

Tachygraphy contained improvements like excluding the E from the prefixes of em-, en-, es-, and ex-. It also contained about 300 symbols for common words and suffixes that a student had to learn by rote.


Tachygraphy Vowel Expression:
Initial vowels were expressed by alphabet sign. Medial vowels were expressed by “Vowel Mode” using the following five positions based on spelling or best represented sound. Final vowels were expressed by dots in the Vowel Mode position.

Resources:
1. Dictionary of National Biography. 2nd Edition (1909). Vol. 18, pgs. 45 & 46.
2. A History of Shorthand by Isaac Pitman (1891)
3. “A Critical and Historical Account of the Art of Shorthand” The National Stenographer
    (Nov 1882)
4. Story of British Shorthand by Edward Butler. 1951. Pgs. 26 to 28.
5. A Tutor of Tachygraphy, 1642