Leo Academy · free course · c.1550–1700
English secretary hand
Bite-sized lessons for family historians. Five minutes a day, letter by letter, in real scribes’ hands from the 1600s, until parish registers, wills and inventories start to read themselves.
0 of 44 lessons done
Unit 1
See it, don't read it
How English secretary hand is built, stroke by stroke
Unit 2
e and s
The backwards e, the long s and the round s
0 of 6 lessons done
Unit 3
c, r, t and h
Square c, twin-stem r, t with a low, short bar (looks like c), and h
Unit 4
d and a
Looped d and a, and telling e, d and o apart
Unit 5
Minims
m, n, u and i: count the strokes
Unit 6
Numbers, money and dates
Roman numerals, li. s. d., and dates: Lady Day, double dating, regnal years
Unit 7
b, w, p, x, k and the descenders
The rest of the alphabet, g y z below the line
Unit 8
One letter, two jobs
u/v, i/j, y for þ, ff for F, and spellings said aloud
Unit 9
Raised letters
wᶜʰ, wᵗʰ, yᵉ, yᵗ, Mʳ, yoʳ, and raised letters that save nothing
Unit 10
Stock phrases
Letters, wills, inventories, registers and bonds: the words every scribe wrote the same way
Unit 11
Signs, and marks that aren't letters
The bar, ꝑ and ꝓ (often used for either), -es and -er, &c., the old signs; line-fillers and corrections
Unit 12
Names
Short names, names with no context to help, places, and the rare capitals
Unit 13
Hard cases
One sign for several words, minims in names, odd numbers, crossings-out, damage, Latin and late hands
What you’ll learn
- 13 units, from the backwards e to numbers, money and dates, stock phrases and whole documents
- Every letter in several real scribes’ hands
- A real manuscript line at every checkpoint
Handbook
The letter forms and abbreviations you’ll meet, with model letters
What is English secretary hand?
English secretary hand was the everyday handwriting of England from the mid-1500s to the late 1600s: the script of parish registers, wills, probate inventories, manorial records and letters. Its letters look unfamiliar (an e that runs backwards, an s that looks like an f), so records that family historians need can seem unreadable at first.
This course teaches it the way language apps teach a new alphabet: one letter family at a time, drilled in context, with the same word shown in many hands. When you have a document of your own, Leo can transcribe it.