Off with his head

[goldie61]

Thank you so much GR2.
I knew you could do it! 

And well done arthur for your industrious research. 

[GR2]

3. Note that in the top line the letter 'u' is written with a mark like a 'v' above it, no doubt to distinguish it from 'n'.

Usually, this mark is more like a wee u. As you say, its purpose is to indicate a u below. You see it right through the 16th and 17th centuries, then it gradually dies out in the early 18th century. The dot over the i has outlived it.

[arthurk]

Nice to know we've cracked it. And in fact what I did didn't take all that long - it was more a case of trying to think phonetically, then trying out the possibilities at DSL. And to cater for the multitude of variant spellings, that's actually quite easy, as you type a few letters in the search box and the software makes suggestions for the rest.