This Indenture made the Sixth day of Aprill in ye third Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lady Anne by the grace of God Queen of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the faith &c Annoque Domini 1704 Between Georg Long of Ramsgate in the Parish of St Lawrence in the Isle of Thanet in the County of Kent Mariner and Margaret his Wife of the One Part And Silvester Spencer of Ramsgate aforesaid Mariner and William Spencer of the same place Mariner of the other Part Witnesseth That the said Georg Long and Margaret his Wife for and in Consideration of the Sum of Seventeen Pounds of Lawfull English Money to them the said Georg Long and Margaret his Wife in hand well and truly paid by the said Silverster Spencer and the said William Spencer at or before the Ensealing and Delivery hereof The receipt whereof of the said Georg Long and MargaretClick here to read the rest of this document
Gerald has transcribed another of the package of documents relating to the Rising Sun in Ramsgate, it really is rather an attractive document and I will try to get a better picture of the original. It is very difficult to get a piece of vellum that has been folded up for over 300 years to lie flat, as I expect using a hammer is something that professional archivists frown upon, once all of the documents have been transcribed I will lay them out flat somewhere, until they settle down and do some better pictures.
"Wersay" has me beat.
ReplyDeleteIf lawyers back then were paid by the word but got no extra for the endorsements could it mean "See above" for the contractual obligations ?
I tried for the origins of wassail in case it had a good will meaning.
Gave up.
Rick,
ReplyDeleteI had to give up on 'wersay'. One problem is that the reverse side of parchment isn't usually such a good surface for writing on (as the front) - as its often a bit rough.
The witness's name "Adam Abbitt" is rather unusual. My guess is that his name might well be Abbott, even though I'm pretty sure that he spells it with an 'i'.
Maybe Michael can decipher what 'wersay' actually is or means.
Gerald I made my six year old granddaughter a flower press today. She asked for one.
ReplyDeleteSo I got out the pyro woodburning tool and scripted her name on the top. Hence when I saw Michael's post re your transcript I arrogantly thought my calligraphy eyes would be in focus.
But the "Wersay" word is not on the piccie ?
There was a principal physicist at one of the London hospitals whose interest was ancient documents.
On one trip to Scotland he examined some Church or Cathedral mediaeval construction documents. Eventually he decyphered it and basically it was the Clerk of Works during the build bewailing that his advice not to employ local labour had not been heeded.
Basically he recorded that the Jock local labour is hung over in the morning disappears midday comes back in the afternoon too drunk for work.
Got to bring in English labour ....
Plus ce change
Rick,
ReplyDelete> But the "Wersay" word is not on the piccie ?
The endorsements (that include the signatures of the witnesses and the acknowledgement of receipt of payments etc) are on the back of the deed - so wouldn't be in Michael's photo.
Please accept my apologies there was some controversy about what turned some seagulls purple going on here, Rick almost definitely iodine vapour escaping from a fume cupboard vent, so I inadvertently missed the back.
ReplyDeleteI have scanned the relevant bits and put them at the bottom of the page with the photo of the document on click here to go there
If you look at "Money" you might see the same formation of N followed by an above line E. If you take out the first loop then it appears the word starts NE .. SAY
ReplyDeleteThat leaves that above line bit. Trouble is he forms "R" two ways in the script I think.
I will have another look after I try for words beginning NE.
PERSAY .... per se spelling of time ... by itself ?
ReplyDeleteYes I think it is a Marian Richardson script P ( shepherds crook no closed loop handy for dyslexics as not a mirror image of D)
ReplyDeleteI will stab at PERSAY
Rick,
ReplyDeleteThe first letter doesn't look like the other 'p's that the writer uses for the start of words. It could be a capital P of course, which might be different.
I thought that this first letter looked a bit like the capital W used in William - however the start of the letter is a bit different.
It could also be "We Say" - but I can't think why "We Say" or "Per Say" would turn up in the text at that point. I have to confess to be puzzled over this one. My guess is that it might be some form of abbreviation. I'll look out for any similar text in later documents.
Per se always comes before the full stop at end of sentence.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense.
If the tail of that sort of p is not pronounced enough then the usual mistake is to read it as N then M then W
I will have another look.
He uses a Shepherd Crook P in April.
ReplyDeleteI will stick to persay.
(Of itself or All of the Above)