Abbreviations

When reading old documents, one of the first things you might notice are spelling inconsistencies. In early records, words were spelled phonetically and could be spelled and abbreviated differently in the same document. Spelling did not become standardized until the 19th century with the availability and circulation of dictionaries and the expansion of compulsory education. The famous quote from Thomas Jefferson, "You should never trust a man who has only one way to spell a word," should be a good indication of what to expect when reading old records.¹

Further complicating the reading of old handwritten records is the use of multiple abbreviations. Because of the repeated use of the same words in records of the same type, most scribes would speed up the recording process and save paper, ink, and time by abbreviating common names and other words using certain abbreviating conventions.

Below are several types of abbreviations found in English documents:

The Thorn

A common popular misconception of archaic forms of English is to use “ye” instead of “the.” In early manuscripts, the y-looking letter form, however, is actually a combination letter termed a “thorn.” The original character for the thorn was Þ, and it indicated “th.” When the printing press was introduced in England in the late 15th century, however, the type came from the Continent, where the letter was not used. The typesetters used the letter y instead because when handwritten, the loop of the thorn was often not connected and looked similar to the y.

ABBREVIATION	MEANING	SAMPLES FROM DOCUMENTS
ye	the
yt	that

The Ampersand

The ampersand character and the abbreviation are still used today to save time and space in writing. In some documents it may appear as a large hook of backwards comma. Et cetera will have an additional stroke to the ampersand and is best recognized in context, usually at the end of a list.

ABBREVIATION	MEANING	SAMPLES FROM DOCUMENT
&	and
c	et cetera

Contractions

An abbreviation by contraction is formed by writing the first and last letters of the word and eliminating the middle letters. For example, the word "deceased" was often abbreviated as "deced," often with a tilde-like symbol or a straight line above the abbreviation. Below are some examples of this type of abbreviations taken from the records.

ABBREVIATION	MEANING	SAMPLES FROM DOCUMENTS
sumoned	summoned
Comodities	Commodities
deced	deceased
Covennt	Covenant
peney	penney
apptnces	appurtenances

The “P” prefixes: Pre, Par, Per, Pro

According to Marshall, "there are special contraction symbols specifically used with the letter P." The P prefixes are uniquely characterized for each prefix, while the different scribes put their own flare on how they have penned the prefix, the principal stoke style represented is for each specific prefix
"When the pen stroke for the stem of the p extends down and crosses back over the stem in a horizontal stroke, this usually represents per, or at time par."

ABBREVIATION	MEANING	SAMPLES FROM DOCUMENT
pish	parish
pson	person could also be parson depend on context
pte	parte
pmitt	permitt
pcell	parcell
pticulers	particulers

"When the p has a hook-shaped mark above the letter, at times similar to the symbol number 2, this represents re. rather than er."

"When the pen stroke from the head of the p comes down to the left and loops back towards or across the stem, this represents pro."

ABBREVIATION	MEANING	SAMPLES OF DOCUMENT
prsente	presente
pmisses	premisses
prmisses	premisses

ABBREVIATION	MEANING	SAMPLES OF DOCUMENT
pfitts	profitts
ppositions	propositions

Superscript

Superscripted letters were a common practice for scribes and a type of contraction. When a letter was superscripted, it often meant the omission of one or more letters, with the first letters written on the baseline and the last one or two letters, are written above the baseline in a smaller size.

ABBREVIATION	MEANING	SAMPLES OF DOCUMENT
executrs	executors
Admrs	Adminstrators
ffells	ffellows	Photo by Win7-5

Titles and occupations

Titles and occupations are used so often in English documents that they were most often contracted. Below are several examples:

ABBREVIATION	MEANING	SAMPLE FROM DOCUMENTS
Admators​	Administrators
Execrs	Executors
Esqr	Esquire
gent	gentleman
Maties	Majesties
mchant	merchant
Sr	Sir

Some of the information on this page, including direct quotes (unless otherwise noted), was drawn from Palaeography for Family and Local Historians by Hilary Marshall (Phillimore, 2004). All images come from the Land Indenture/Title Deed Collection located at the L. Tom Perry Special Collections at Brigham Young University.

1. Thomas Jefferson, The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5). 12 vols. [Online] available from http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1734; accessed 6/25/2015; Internet.