Earliest registers (1538–1560)

Three stages of secretary hand

Early Tudor

From about 1485 to the last years of Henry VIII.Petti p. 16

Mid-Tudor

From the mid-1530s to about 1558.Petti p. 16

Elizabethan

Settled by about 1560: compact and written with a fine nib, from formal to fast.Petti pp. 16–17

Upright, then sloping

The first secretary hands stand upright; a sloping style follows about a generation later.Hector p. 58

Forms to expect

2-shaped r everywhere

Early Tudor hands use the r shaped like a 2 in every position, not just after o. See morePetti p. 16

The twin-stem r arrives

The twin-stem r of later hands only develops in mid-Tudor writing. See morePetti p. 16

p with a lead-in

A p entered by a stroke shaped like a 2.Petti p. 16

A crossing g

A g whose tail swings back and crosses over its head.Petti p. 16

A broad l

A noticeably broad l.Petti p. 16

Numbers and punctuation

Mostly roman numerals

Arabic figures are rare in documents before about 1530.Hector p. 42

Old figure shapes

A 4 like a loop, not upright until the mid-16th century; a 5 with no top bar until late in it; a 0 with a stroke through it until the mid-16th century.Hector pp. 42–43; Petti p. 28

The virgule

The slanting stroke used as a comma is common in these years (see Marks that aren't letters). See moreD&K-S p. 18; Petti p. 26

Old writers, old forms

Dating by hand is rough

Judged by its letters alone, a hand can be dated only to within 30 or 40 years: a writer could keep the forms he learnt young all his life.Petti p. 33

Sources

• Petti: A. G. Petti, English Literary Hands from Chaucer to Dryden (1977)
• D&K-S: G. E. Dawson and L. Kennedy-Skipton, Elizabethan Handwriting 1500–1650 (1966)
• Hector: L. C. Hector, The Handwriting of English Documents (1958)

Facts from these books, in our own words. Page numbers are the printed pages.