Other Shorthand Improvements Between 1602 and 1707 (Shorthand Part 9)

1644 — Theophilus Metcalf 
Theophilus Metcalfe published the 6th edition of his Radio-Stenography in 1645. He is the first author to suggest leaving out the small words "the" and "of," words that can be supplied from context or memory to speed writing.

1659 — Noah Bridges
Noah Bridges published Stenographie and Cryptographie in 1659. His is the first system to represent medial vowels with dots. He represented initial vowels by alphabet sign and final vowels with dots.

1674 — Elisha Coles
Elisha Coles published The Newest, Plainest and Shortest Shorthand in 1674. Coles was the first shorthand author to suggest position writing or writing on ruled paper which gives three distinct writing positions: above the line, on the line, and below the line.

Coles thought the greatest obstacle to shorthand speed was monosyllables. In his system, writing a vowel sign above, on, or below the line corresponded to certain monosyllabic words. For example, an A written above the line represented the words add, aid, and, age, arch, ash, ark, and ask.

Jeremiah Rich (Shorthand Part 8)

Summary:
Jeremiah Rich (d. ~1660) was most likely from a good family because he dedicated his 1659 Penns Dexterity to the “Right Honourable Lady Mary Rich,” the Countess of Warwick and a likely relative with whom he probably lived as a tutor. Rich learned shorthand from his uncle, William Cartwright, became a well-known practitioner, and is one of the earliest known reporters of trails. Jeremiah Rich published his shorthand system in the following books:
• Semography in 1642.
• Charactery in 1646.
• Semigraphy or Arts Rarity in 1654.
• The World’s Rarity before 1660.
• The Penns [Pen's] Dexterity in 1659.

Unfortunately, Jeremiah Rich was not the inventor of his shorthand system; it was developed by his uncle, William Cartwright. While Rich published Semography, the author of the system is clearly William Cartwright. The later portion of Semography’s subtitle reads:

"…Invented and composed for the benefit of others by the Author hereof William Cartwright, and is now set forth and published by his nephew, Ieremiah Rich, immediate next to the Author deceased…"

While Jeremiah Rich did not author the system, he did popularize it. Cornelius Walford, a President of the Shorthand Society of London, in The Phonetic Journal (Feb. 21, 1885) stated:

“[Jeremiah] Rich did a great deal to popularize stenography in the United Kingdom during the second half of the 17th century is absolutely clear; and I have reason to suppose from various manuscripts and shorthand notes in books that a great many of the learned professors at the Universities became familiar with and practiced his system.”

Pen's Dexterity Alphabet:
The alphabet is based on the 1627 alphabet of Edmond Willis 

Pen's Dexterity Vowel Expression:
Initial vowels were expressed by alphabet sign. Medial vowels were expressed by “Vowel Mode” using the following four positions based on spelling or best represented sound. Final vowels were expressed by dots in the Vowel Mode position. The vowel E was omitted it for ef-, el-, em-, en-, er-. es-, ex-, be-, de-, ge-, pe-, and te-. When written medially, E was represented by a small joined circle. Final E was written as a dot in the I vowel position.

Resources:
1. Dictionary of National Biography. 2nd Edition (1909), Vol. 16, page 1000-1001
2. A History of Shorthand by Isaac Pitman (1891), page 21 to 26
3. “A Critical and Historical Account of the Art of Shorthand” The National Stenographer
    (Dec 1882)
4. Story of British Shorthand by Edward Butler. 1951. Pages 38 to 40.
5. Pen’s Dexterity (1690)

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

Edmond Willis (Shorthand Part 6)

Summary:
Little is know about the life of Edmond Willis.  There is even a question if he was related to John Willis.  Most sources say there was no relationship between the two men or the relationship is unknown.

Edmond Willis published the first edition of “An Abbreviation of Writing by Character” in 1618. This edition was based on John Willis' Shorthand system, and some authors consider it only a slight modification of John Willis' system. While this is true for the overall system, Edmond Willis did completely change the alphabet signs.

In 1627, Edmond Willis published the second edition.  The alphabet was basically the same as the 1618 alphabet with only the signs for O, R, and T being altered. It also contained signs for double and triple consonants that began or ended words, prefixes and suffixes, and about 200 arbitraries.

1627 Alphabet:

Edmond Willis also had signs for CH, SH, and TH in the 1627 alphabet:


ch

sh


th



1627 Vowel Expression:
Vowels were expressed by “Vowel Mode” which is the disjoining of a succeeding consonant and placing it against the preceding consonant in a particular position.  Different position represent different vowels.

Resources:
1. The Bibliography of Shorthand by John Westby-Gibson (1887)
2. Historical Account of the Rise and Fall of Shorthand by James Henry Lewis (1816)
3. “The History of Short-hand Writing” by Matthias Levy (1862)
4. “Shorthand: A Scientific Magazine” Vol. 3 by Shorthand Society (1889).
    (Search for "Edmond Willis')
5. A History of Shorthand by Isaac Pitman (1891)
6. "Shorthand." Chambers's Encyclopedia. (1892. Vol. 9, page 414)
7. “A Critical and Historical Account of the Art of Shorthand” The National Stenographer
    (Nov 1882)
8. Story of British Shorthand by Edward Butler. 1951. Pgs. 25, 26, and 204.

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)

Finding Online Resources

For those who might be interested, below is of list of my main resources for finding information:

1. Google
2. Hathi Trust Digital Library
3. New York Public Library
4. Harvard Library
5. WorldCat  (collections of over 10,000 libraries worldwide)
6. The Online Books Page

Timothy Bright (Shorthand Part 4)

Summary:
Dr. Timothy Bright (1550 - 1615) was an M.D. who abandoned the medical profession, took holy orders, and later became the rector of Methley and Berwick-in-Elmet in West Yorkshire.

Dr. Timothy Bright published “Characterie: An Arte of Shorte, Swifte and Secrete Writing by Character” in 1588. The only known copy is in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The book contains about five hundred symbols each representing a word.

The system consisted of an alphabet of 18 geometric letterforms for a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i/j/y, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, x/v/w. The letters k and q were represented by c.

From "History of Shorthand" by I. Pitman

To the end (bottom) of each alphabetic letterform, twelve additional geometric marks could be added. Each letterform was assigned to an arbitrary word starting with the alphabet letter.

From "History of Shorthand" by I. Pitman

Each of the twelve symbols could be laid on its side (left or right) or inverted to obtain more symbols. Therefore, each symbol of the twelve symbols could be drawn in four different positions to represent up to 48 words from each alphabet letter.

While the Bright’s system was original, it was extremely cumbersome to the student’s and practitioner’s memory. Shorthand experts estimate the top writing speed is about 80 words per minute.


Resources:
1. The Dictionary of National Biography (1908, Vol. II, pgs. 1245-47)
2. History of Shorthand by Isaac Pitman (1891)
3. “History of Shorthand” by Mattais Levy. Shorthand and Typing (1896)
4. The Bibliography of Shorthand by by John Westby-Gibson (1887)
5. The Story of British Shorthand by Edward H. Butler (1951)

Tironian Notes / Roman Shorthand (Shorthand Part 3)

Information on Tironian Notes / Roman Shorthand:

Example of Tironian Notes

Overview:
"Shorthand." New International Encyclopedia (Vol. 21, pg. 42)
“Shorthand.” Encyclopedia Britannica (1911, Vol. 24, pgs. 1007)


Information and Writing System:
History of Shorthand by Thomas Anderson. Page 32ff
History of Shorthand by Isaac Pitman. Page 1ff (After Introduction of Pitman System)


More Historical Information:
The National Stenographer, Volume 4, pgs. 267ff

Ancient and Mediaeval Shorthand by Dr. J.W. Zeibig (Translated by N. P. Heffley) (1888)