We all have a distinct signature, and what we sign has a story to tell. Here are some lovely signatures of men in Coverdale who signed the Manor Court Roll in the 18th century. See my website about the history of Coverdale http://coverdalehistory.simdif.com Each signature tells the story that this person was present at this time and in this place. We sign all sorts of things, some might be threatened with becoming obsolete, such as cheques, but nevertheless we still have to sign our name most days. The postman or the parcel delivery driver expects us to sign a hand-held electronic gadget with a stick, my scribble never resembles my signature, but it is deemed important to sign for the parcel. The signing of important documents has to have witnesses and without them the document may not be valid. Often there is an affidavit accompanying a will that has not been witnessed, by people who swear that they recognise the handwriting of the deceased, and that the will is indeed in their hand and signed with their usual signature. Of course, there were those who could not sign their names, and made a mark. Still, the marks are just as fascinating and did not prohibit people from normal life which required written records. This is from the marriage register of Startforth Parish, I was interested in a marriage on the same page, but here , in 1784, neither groom nor bride, nor either of the witnesses could sign their names. George Heslop made a will in 1794 and could only make a very shaky mark and add his seal, whilst all his witnesses signed in very legible hands. Which leads to witnesses, they can be important pointers in historical research. These are the appraisers and witnesses to an inventory of 1675. Thomas Butterfield [Butterfill was probably how he pronounced his name] made a mark and two dots, Edward Horne manage a bold H, and the two Leonards, Spence and Tayllor signed. I now know that at a date before any Parish registers existed for this area, these four people were alive and living in Coverdale. So our signatures can be on legal and important documents, or quite ephemeral things that could be discarded in a moment. I acquired, by quite a miraculous chain of events, some postcards which had belonged to a distant twig on my family tree. They date around the early 1900s, the age when postcards were all the rage and people sent them and collected them. My collection belonged to a young girl in Manchester called Evina Croft (yes, lovely name) and I have managed to identify the different handwriting on the cards indicating which family members sent them. One was from her Uncle Duterau - yes another odd name, the family specialised in odd names (great for a family historian). He signed the back of his portrait with his name. He lived for much of his life in North Lincolnshire, in Crowle, he was a chemist. When he retired he moved to Darlington in County Durham, where he was a prominent member of one of the Methodist Churches in the town. I was delighted when a member of that same Methodist Church contacted me a few months ago to tell me that at a "Special Do" they had got out some of the chapel table cloths. One was embroidered with names, and on it was the signature of Duterau Croft. The same signature ? Well certainly the same name. Who else was on the table cloth ? Honour Gill Johnson was his sister, and as yet I am unsure who the Mary Croft was. This has the signature of a Lilian Lambert. Much, much later, she was my music teacher. At the time the cloth was signed she did live in Darlington. Later she married and was called Fryer, so I only have her signature as L M Fryer. This is what she would have looked like at about the time the cloth was made. She had had the photograph taken by Taylor of Bondgate, Darlington. She later married , as his second wife, a man called Johnson Fryer from Brompton upon Swale. Lastly, another source for signatures is the front cover of books. When you give a book as a present, do you sign and date it ? This is in the front of a book called True to His Colours [I have not read it - yet] or The Life that wears best, published in 1879 and by the Rev T P Wilson. On the front it also says "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap", so you can guess what sort of book it is. I knew Madge Plews, she married Arthur Darwin and she was a cousin of my father. But I did not know who Vina Gill was. But I have found her on a census, and she too was a cousin of my father, correct name was Evina M Gill and she was born in 1889 at Cotherstone. And her strange name ? She was named after Evina Croft, sister of Duterau, who sadly died in her teens. And the Evina Croft of Manchester who had the postcards was the niece of Duterau. My father was the youngest of his family, and his father was one of nine, and in his horizontal line of siblings and cousins there were fifty ! So the age of his cousins stretched over many years. In the 1911 census Evina Gill was living in the household of her brother, another of my father's cousins, at Lartington, and as the 1911 census is the only one to have the original signatures of the householders, I have his signature too.
So, think about what you are signing, it tells that you were in a particular place at a particular time. And perhaps next time you have a big gathering you will get everyone to sign a table cloth. And sign those books you give as presents, leave a trail for future generations to puzzle over in years to come. And keep writing by hand so that, like Paul at the end of his letter to the Galatians you can put "See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand" Galations 6 v11
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorThis is where you can share creativity with me. I believe that everyone has something creative within them, and it is a joy to find ways of being creative. Blogging is NEW to me, so here goes ..... Archives
January 2024
Categories |