John Byrom (Shorthand Part 12)

John Byrom (1692—1763) was leap year baby born on February 29, 1692, near Manchester to a prosperous merchant. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1708. He received his B.A. in 1712 and M.A. in 1715. The development of his shorthand system started while he was in college. Robert Roffe in Stenographical Accidence, or Byrom’s System of Shorthand Made Easy (1813) states:

“The first occasion of Byrom’s turning his attention to the study of shorthand arose from his acquaintance with Mr. Sharpe at Trinity College, Cambridge. This gentleman’s father, at that time Archbishop of York, had recommended to his son to make himself master of shorthand as an art very useful and commodious. Incited by an authority so respectable, the two friends applied themselves to the study of the method then in vogue, but Mr. Byrom was so disgusted with the absurdity and awkwardness of its contrivances, that he soon threw it aside. Smitten, however, with the idea of an art so useful in life and so capable, in his opinion, of being brought to much greater perfection he consulted everything that could by procured, either in print or manuscript, which has been written on the subject; but finding them all, however, differing in trifling circumstances, equally arbitrary, inartificial, and defective in their first principles, he resolved no attempt a system of his own, upon a more natural, rational and philosophical plan. His system was completed as early as the year 1720.”

In 1716, he travelled to Montpelier, France and studied medicine and took up an interest in poetry. Byrom returned to London in 1718 without taking an M.D. degree, and declined an offer to practice medicine in Manchester. Thereafter, he was called “doctor” by his friends.

Byrom married his cousin, Elizabeth Byrom, on February 14, 1721. She was the daughter of Joseph Byrom, his father’s younger brother. The marriage did receive consent of her parents though the opposite has been alleged in some biographies.

Further, some biographies assert that Byrom’s marriage left him without support from the family estates or her parents and that he resorted to teaching shorthand as a means of income.  However, if we look at the facts a more reasonable explanation would be he had other means of supporting his wife and children and was attracted to teaching shorthand due to his interests.

Byrom first taught his shorthand in Manchester, and after success went to London. Once in London, his connections at Cambridge were helpful in introducing him to prominent members of society: Horace Walpole, Lord Conway, the Wesley brothers, Lord Chesterfield, the duke of Devonshire, Lord Camden, and others.

Shorthand probably secured his Fellowship to the Royal Society in March 1724—Sir Isaac Newton was the society’s president at the time.  Byrom also founded the first stenographic club, a Shorthand Society, for his shorthand system on February 28, 1726.

John Byrom had a serious rivalry with James Weston. The two often contested about the superiority of their respective system. Weston challenged Byrom to a writing contest with a 50 guineas to 1 that his system is as speedy or legible as Byrom’s. The contest never took place, though many shorthand histories state that the two did meet and Weston lost.  The main proof to the lack of a contest is Weston is still challenging Byrom in 1742 when Byrom has stopped is active involvement in shorthand (see following paragraph).

After the death of his older brother, Edward, in May 1740, Byrom inherited all of the family estates, and he lost interest in teaching and furthering shorthand. Byrom never published his system during the remainder of his life and instead enjoyed social and domestic life. On September 26, 1763, John Byrom died after a lingering illness.


1767 New Universal Shorthand:
John Byrom’s manuscripts were made into the New Universal Shorthand and published in 1767, four years after his death. The writing principles were:

1. A complete word must be written without taking off the pen.
2. The writing should by lineal—not rising above or sinking below two parallel lines without being crowded.
3. Abbreviations should expressed by alphabet letters and be founded on the properties of the language.
4. There should be no arbitrary marks or signs

The Alphabet:


Vowels:
The vowels, when expressed (i.e., initial or final vowels were generally expressed and the medial vowels omitted), were represented by a dot in written next to the consonant in five positions based on vowel spelling (single vowels) or nearest sound (e.g., A for ai, au, aw, and ay). Shorthand experts have noted that practically it is impossible to observe more than three positions: beginning, middle, and end.

For vertical and horizontal signs, if the dot was placed to the left or above the sign then the vowel occurred before the consonant. If the dot was placed to the right or below the sign, then the vowel occurred after the consonant.

Unfortunately for curved consonants, this vowel pattern did not continue. Instead A, E, and I are written above the consonant and O and U below the consonant when the vowel occurred before the consonant. The opposite was used when the vowel occurred after the consonant. A bit confusing to the learner to say the least. Later adapters used the consistent horizontal signs pattern for curved consonants.



References:

1. Dictionary of National Biography. 2nd Edition. (1908-1909). Vol 3, 581-4
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. The Story of British Shorthand by Edward H. Butler. 1951. Pages 44 to 55.