Have you ever tried to read a will or a parish register from the 16th, 17th or early 18th century? If the handwriting looked genuinely impenetrable, you’ve met “secretary hand.” Clerks, vicars and lawyers used this everyday script across England for two hundred years.
It looks nothing like modern handwriting. A long s resembles an f. A “th” appears as a single stroke, and the numbers look quite unlike our own. Once you know the alphabet, though, it stops being a mystery and becomes simply another skill to learn.
A Secretary Hand ABC Book closes that gap. Genealogy courses recommend it as reading and one makes it mandatory reading – it isn’t just something we sell ourselves. Our own former chairman, Alf Ison, wrote it over forty years ago. The Society has reprinted it many times since. It takes you through the alphabet letter by letter, exactly as secretary hand actually wrote it. Real wills of the period supply the examples, alongside practice words, numbers and even a few nursery rhymes. We’ve sold thousands of copies.
It remains in print today for one simple reason: nothing has replaced it. If you want to read sixteenth, seventeenth and early eighteenth-century documents for yourself, this is still the book to reach for. Genealogy tutors still point their students towards it.
Berkshire Family History Society publishes A Secretary Hand ABC Book directly. It costs £10 from our shop and you can order your copy here. Berkshire FHS members can also use their 10% discount code at checkout.
