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Translating Secretary Hand

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John the sonne of Richard Curtis and Alice his wife. bap. x Maye (10th May)

One of the hands you are likely to come across is the style of writing common from the Tudor age to the start of the reign of King Charles 1. This is a 150 year period and there is naturally considerable variation between individual scribes. The easiest way to understand this style of writing is to create a table of each letter and use that to translate difficult words.You can print this page and use it to complete your own table.

Character	Examples in Secretary hand	Your letter
A, a	,
B, b	,
C, c	,
D, d	,
E, e	,
F, f	,
G, g	,
H, h	,
I or J, i or j	,
K, k	,
L, l	,
M, m	,
N, n	,
O, o	,
P, p	,
Q, q	,
R, r	,
S, s	,
T, t	,
U, u	,
V, v	,
W, w	,
X, x	,
Y, y	,
Z, z	,

Things to note are the letters C, often confused with T; c, which looks like an r; e, often confused with o; F written as ff and sometimes confused with H; H and h have a large looping tail which some have confused with y (see below); I and J use the same symbol as do i and j; r can be mistaken for z or w; s can be mistaken for f; U and V use the same symbol while v can be mistaken for w; z can be mistaken for the number 3.

Watch out for the word 'the' which, as it was written often, became shortened to produce something which looks like 'ye'. This is the origin of the 'Ye Olde Tea Shoppe', which actually should be read as 'the old tea shop'.

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