Dates in old documents

[Frank75]

I have been perusing the Parish marriage records for Beckingham Lincolnshire during 1586/7 on Linctothepast and have been unable to understand the way that numbers in dates have been written. I can work out that the document says for example "this ??th day of January", but I can't fathom what the actual date is.  It seems to be some form of numbering which could be latin but I don't know for sure.

Does anyone have a pointer as to where I can find out how to interpret the dates?

Thanks

Frank

[KGarrad]

Have a look at this page:

http://www.freereg.org.uk/howto/readnumbers.htm

[Frank75]

Thanks.  Have looked at the link and it is useful for latin.  However the register I have been referring to uses a weird form of numbering and I don't think it is latin.  The writer also uses regnal years which adds to the confusion because the numbers are written in the same fashion.  It may be an unusual way of writing the numbers in latin.  However the day I am looking at the number is written with a backward looking g with a long looping tail and what looks like a b leaning backwards.

I don't know if this helps.  Have a look at the record I am referring to: Marriage of Thomas Trueblood and Elizabeth Parker

http://www.lincstothepast.com/Records/RecordDisplayTranscript.aspx?oid=555335&iid=45621

You can increase the size of the image by zooming in on your browser ctrl + or -

Frank

[KGarrad]

Sorry! I can't make out any words at all!
Somebody has endorsed "Lincs to the past" all over the document image.


The letter/marks you are referring to could be j?
That page I linked to explains that j is often used instead of i in Roman numerals?

[Whipby]

Could it be xv^th which would be the 15th? x was often written that way, with a loopy tail.  Not too sure about the v though.

Have a look at this link: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/researchguidance/datingdocuments/latin.aspx

Edit: I can't quite make out the previous marriage because the entry seems different from the others, with some sort of bracketing towards the end, but the date looks like xxix (29th?) of something, but the marriage after yours looks like xij th (12th?) February so at least it would fit chronologically. 

[behindthefrogs]

There are a number of dates of the form anno reginae xxjx, xxx, xxxj, xxxij which translate as year of the queen (may be reign)  29, 30, 31 and 32.  This was the normal way of writing years.

David

[GR2]

The 'backward looking g' is a way of writing x. The 'backward leaning b' is a way of writing v. You will easily be able to identify i, but at the end of a number the i is ofter lengthened to j. xvij = 17.

When you see Anno = in the year, then the number in Latin is not ten, but tenth, not two, but second - in the second year......  The Latin for first, second, eighth, twenty third etc. ends in o - e.g. anno tertio = in the third year. This is written iii or iij with a small superscript o at the end.

Graham

[Frank75]

Wow.  I am knocked out by the response.  Thanks everybody.  It seems that the date is 15th January.  Now the next question is.  1586 or 1587.  From what you have said then it looks like it would be the 29th year of the reigning monarch?

Frank

[Frank75]

Elizabeth 1 reigned from 1558 so her 29th year would be 1587.  What does everybody think?

Frank