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Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition / Re: decypher street name
« on: Tuesday 28 September 10 22:22 BST (UK) »
There was a London street called Bevis Marks, off which ran Heneage Lane (or so wikipedia says!).
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Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition / Re: What year is this please?
« on: Saturday 18 September 10 00:48 BST (UK) »
Could it be '1718/19'? You know how until 1752 they used to start the official new year on March 25, so that if something happened in the early months of 1719 it would still be happening in 1718, legally? It always does my head in. I have to admit though the '9' of '19th' has a longer tail than anything visible on this little subscript figure.
I thought the word at the end looked like 'feisted'. Then I thought perhaps it was 'feiste d..' and I thought perhaps it meant 'feast day'. But then I wondered if it meant 'fast day', which sometimes happened in times of trouble - the authorities proclaimed an official day of fasting and prayer? Perhaps they were recording that this particular 19th February was a Fast Day.
I thought the word at the end looked like 'feisted'. Then I thought perhaps it was 'feiste d..' and I thought perhaps it meant 'feast day'. But then I wondered if it meant 'fast day', which sometimes happened in times of trouble - the authorities proclaimed an official day of fasting and prayer? Perhaps they were recording that this particular 19th February was a Fast Day.
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Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition / Re: Help with a couple of words from 1668 please
« on: Saturday 18 September 10 00:24 BST (UK) »
OED has a word variously spelled 'foran / forne / foren / forrn / forn' and meaning 'at the front'.
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Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition / Re: 1741 Will
« on: Saturday 18 September 10 00:03 BST (UK) »
Trawling OED for possible dialect words, they have 'clats', cow-dung - which seems to have been a useful product on farms, e.g. their example:
"1834 Brit. Husb. I. 27 'Clats..the dung of cattle as fuel..collected from the pastures at the close of summer' ".
(Weirdly, I had a Yorkshire friend who puzzled me once when she casually referred to something being 'as flat as a cow clart': I now understand what she meant.)
Re the 'pease ___', OED has a word which can be spelled 'eddish', 'etch' or 'eatage' meaning the stubble left after a crop had been reaped. It could have value as cattle fodder, or because other crops could be sown over the top and gain nutrients from it:"The bean etche well cleaned in the autumn and sown again with wheat".
"1834 Brit. Husb. I. 27 'Clats..the dung of cattle as fuel..collected from the pastures at the close of summer' ".
(Weirdly, I had a Yorkshire friend who puzzled me once when she casually referred to something being 'as flat as a cow clart': I now understand what she meant.)
Re the 'pease ___', OED has a word which can be spelled 'eddish', 'etch' or 'eatage' meaning the stubble left after a crop had been reaped. It could have value as cattle fodder, or because other crops could be sown over the top and gain nutrients from it:"The bean etche well cleaned in the autumn and sown again with wheat".
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Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition / Re: help deciphering 16c document
« on: Wednesday 01 September 10 12:34 BST (UK) »
Sorry, should have said 'theise presents' (i.e. 'this document here') and 'Rushulme' (but it's Rusholme now 
.
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Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition / Re: help deciphering 16c document
« on: Wednesday 01 September 10 12:32 BST (UK) »
As above, only 'wheras', 'presents' (i.e. the document itself) and Rusholme.
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Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition / Re: More help with inventory please
« on: Friday 20 August 10 22:52 BST (UK) »
The OED I use is the online edition, available in your own home, entirely free, to members of our local library service. God bless libraries!
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Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition / Re: Help With Latin
« on: Friday 20 August 10 19:03 BST (UK) »
I agree with the 15th April date. I can't make out the Latin word by word, but from similar formulae I've seen at the bottom of other wills this is the official probate statement. Basically it says that Robert Green is the lawyer ('in legibus barr.') presiding over the proving of the will of Edward Rogers deceased ('Test[amen]tum Edw[ard]i Rogers def[uncti]'), and Margaret is the executrix ('Margarete Rogers/E[xecu]trx') who swears ('iurat') to administer the goods faithfully.
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Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition / Re: Occupations of the Crompton Family 1841 Blackburn
« on: Thursday 19 August 10 10:37 BST (UK) »
Perhaps it was something to do with a tradition of naming after kin, and with families often being closely inter-related? If they all lived in a small community, perhaps it's possible the mother had an uncle or brother with 'Crompton' as his first name? (Yeah I know, another guess). 
Families higher up the social scale seem to have been using maternal-kindred surnames as first names from even earlier in time. There's an anecdote about a 17th c. gent called 'Bulstrode Whitlock', whose mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Bulstrode. At the christening his godfather had the privilege of choosing the baby's name, and said he was absolutely determined to honour the child's mother in so doing - so they could either name the boy 'Elizabeth' or 'Bulstrode', it was all the same to him. They chose Bulstrode.
Families higher up the social scale seem to have been using maternal-kindred surnames as first names from even earlier in time. There's an anecdote about a 17th c. gent called 'Bulstrode Whitlock', whose mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Bulstrode. At the christening his godfather had the privilege of choosing the baby's name, and said he was absolutely determined to honour the child's mother in so doing - so they could either name the boy 'Elizabeth' or 'Bulstrode', it was all the same to him. They chose Bulstrode.