Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek stenos (narrow) and graphein. It has also been called brachygraphy, from Greek brachys (short), and tachygraphy, from Greek tachys, depending on whether compression or speed of writing is the goal.
William Prynne, an English lawyer, voluble author, polemicist and political figure, was a prominent Puritan opponent of church policy under William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (1633–1645). His views were presbyterian, but he became known in the 1640s as an Erastian, arguing for overall state control of religious matters.
James Howell was a Welsh writer and historian. The son of a Welsh clergyman, he was for much of his life in the shadow of his elder brother Thomas Howell, who became Lord Bishop of Bristol.
Antiques Roadshow is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom to appraise antiques brought in by local people. It has been running since 1979, based on a 1977 documentary programme.
John Goodwin (1594–1665) was an English preacher, theologian and prolific author of significant books.
Laurence Clarkson (1615–1667), sometimes called Claxton, born in Preston, Lancashire, was an English theologian and accused heretic. He was the most outspoken and notorious of the loose collection of radical Protestants known as the Ranters.
Henry George Sandon, MBE is an English antique expert, television personality, author and lecturer specialising in ceramics and is a notable authority on Royal Worcester porcelain. He was curator of the Dyson Perrins Museum for many years.
Nathaniel Hardy (1618–1670) was an English churchman, Dean of Rochester from 1660.
Paul Rowley Atterbury, FRSA is a British antiques expert, known for his many appearances since 1979 on the BBC TV programme Antiques Roadshow. He specialises in the art, architecture, design and decorative arts of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Jon Baddeley is a fine art auctioneer, an authority on scientific instruments and collectables, a broadcaster and an author.
William Addy was a writing-master based in London, and the author of a system of shorthand published in 1685. The method, a modification of that of Jeremiah Rich, was so much practised that the Bible, the New Testament, and the Singing Psalms were published, according to its system, two years later. The 1695 edition of his work was entitled Stenographia, or the Art of Short-Writing completed in a far more compendious methode than any yet extant. It was engraved throughout. The Bible was engraved by John Sturt. In subsequent editions of the Bible the preliminary leaves were changed, and the book dedicated to King William. All the title-pages are dated 1687.
Stenoscript or Stenoscript ABC Shorthand is a shorthand system invented by Manuel C. Avancena (1923–1987) and first published in 1950. Encyclopædia Britannica, perhaps erroneously, claims it was based on a system published in London in 1607. An unrelated project also called Stenoscript was written by George A.S. Oliver and published in London in 1934.
Sir Thomas Myddelton, 1st Baronet was a Welsh politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1646 and 1663. He supported the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil War but later took part in the Cheshire Uprising (1659) in support of the Restoration.
Robert Shapcote, JP was an English lawyer from Devon and four times Member of Parliament for Tiverton in 1646–1649, 1654, 1656 and 1660. He sat in the Irish House of Commons for the borough of Wicklow from 1661 to 1665 and was Solicitor-General for Ireland and twice briefly Attorney-General for Ireland. He fought in the Parliamentary army in the Civil War.
William Whitaker (1629–1672) was an English Puritan ejected minister.
Philip Gibbs (1695-1752) was an English nonconformist minister and stenographer, known now as the first historian of shorthand writing.
William Mason was an English writing-master and stenographer.
Theophilus Metcalfe was an English stenographer. He invented a shorthand system that became popular, in particular, in New England, where it was used to record the Salem witch trials.
Thomas Arkisden, was a stenographer, who invented a shorthand alphabet, whilst at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He settled in Aspley Guise, where he was known as the Bletchley minster.
