The Washington times. (Washington [D.C.]) 1901-1902, 1901-08-25
ANTIQUITY or SHORTHAND
Its Use Dates Back Before the In
vention Of Printing.
First Textbook Appeared In f7sO.
Systems In Vogue ~ Early as
15sS-One Method Employed In

the Roman Tribune and Forum
Once regarded as little short of witch
craft or sorcery, shorthand has now be-
come so common and matter-of-fact an
element In our daily contact with bust
ness and mercantile affairs that II In all
but unnoticed and unnoted. To those who
see its almost universal use today and
Know little or nothing of its origin and
growth. and to those who associate It en-
ttireiy with its present utilitarian sur
roundings of the business office or the
courtroom, 1t may be surprising to learn
that, unlike fts present sister and depen-
dent occupation OF typewriting, and those
other important time-savinR inventions.
the telenhone. the telegraph, and fast
mail. 1t Is not child of the century iust
passed. but dates back In its application
to the English language almost to the IN
vention of printing ITSELF while In its ear
Her use In Greek and Roman civilization
1t antedates even the Christian era But
so 1t is. and by Its means have been pre-
served to Us the matchless cioquence of
| the Roman tribune and forum. alike with
the brilliant oratory Of Burke and Pitt and
Fox. and the masterpieces of Webster and
Clay and Phillips and Garrison
While there is probability that unpub-
| lished systems of '.characterie" resem-
! bling the Roman stenographic "uotae,"
| were used to some extent by the monkish
| litterateurs of the early and middle peri
DDS of English history, the first known
| published system was that of Timothe
! Bright. worthy doctor of "phisike' and
| divinity of the later Elizabethan period
His little book appeared In 1858. and was
entitled, Characterize an Art of shorte,
swifte, and secrete writing by character"
IL was dedicated (by permission) to the
Virgin Queen, and was clearly book of
great labor and research. 1t contained
the germ. the idea, of swift writing. but
beyond that was practically useless. as
its great complexity would make its mas
terry the work of lifetime. while IL could
scarcely be used for any exact require
ments. since each character stood for all
words of the same meaning and applica-
ton
Inspired doubtless by his example, the
first real alphabetical shorthand system
soon made its appearance, in 1902 being
the work Of John Willis. upon which
nearly ali the systems appearing during
the next 200 years were largely based,
either in the actual signs themselves or In
the theory of execution. Sixteen years
later a namesake, but so far as / can
learn not a relative. Edmund Willis. pro-
duced shorthand system which immedi-
ately rivaled that of the elder Willis
in popularity. These systems went
through number of editions and were
quite widely used by ciergymen and lit
erary men. especially during the periods
Of religious intolerance and persecution.
when systems of secret writing were a
practical necessity.
l have investigated patiently. but with
no success as yet, to ascertain whether
any of the famous band which landed at
Plymouth Rock nearly three hundred
years ago used shorthand. 1t would not
be strange If some of them did, however,
because they were made up of the very
class among which shorthand found its
first converts and users. Indeed, the ear
land dates back to within about half
dozen years of the settlement of the old
colony by the Pilgrims. Shorthand manu-
scripts are still preserved by our libraries,
historical associations. etc. which were
written as early as 1881, and the writer has
recently had loaned to him a diary written
in shorthand extending over a period of
from about 1860 to 1890
1t is an interesting fact that in spite of
the alleged great improvements in short
hand during the past sixty years, the
ancient system of Quincy is still used in
reporting the British Parliament and the
work has been done ever since the days
of the elder Quincy by members of his
immediate family and their descendants.
A number of shorthand works appeared
during the next twenty years, in Philadei-
phia, Albany, and New York. but as they
are outside the scope OF this article 1 will
only say that with one exception (the sys-
II
of Congress) they were all reprints OF
English systems.
In 1909 was printed the first New Eng
land shorthand work. 1t was an anony-
nous adaptation of the famous English
system of Samuel Taylor, and was little
pamphlet of sixteen pages and four plates
Copies of this work may be seen in the
Boston Public Library and the library of
Harvard College From that time New
England has been a centre OF shorthand
A check list of shorthand
publications published in New England or
by New England authors, recently pro
pared by juIius Ensign Rockwell. Of
Washington, d. c.. the well-known short
hand bibliophile. contains about 800 titles,
and there are very probably Others Mr..
Rockwell. by the way. is of a good old
New England family. was born in Mas
Is the namesake OF our
iurist. Judge Julius Rock
well, and is son of the late Henry En-
sign Rockwell, who left New England to
become one of the first official reporters
of the United States Senate. He is also
a brother of Col. Horace T Rockwell, of
this city, once a noted shorthand reporter,
and now still more noted in other lines.
Many volumes of sermons written
reported in shorthand in the seventeenth
ano eighteenth centuries still exist, the
earliest such being in the Springfield Pub
lie Library, being shorthand reports by
Major John Pynchon, son of the founder
Of Springfield. of the sermons Of Rev.
George Moxon, first pastor Of that town,
written 1861 to 1859.
The writer has an interesting notebook
lating back to 1867. in which Jacob Cush-
ng. of bingham. Mass. recorded In short
hand the sermons OF the good old ortho-
iox parsons Of those days. The manu-
script Is the property of Mrs. w. j. New
,omb one OF the descendants of Squire Z.
Cushing. who was in his day man OF
Importance in bingham. being magistrate
Inder the King, and selectman and rep
esentative.
Official Stenographer Frank II. Burt. of
he Superior Court, has an interesting old
ohCe ~ oic VI
lis ancestors, Eben Hunt. jr., being ser
non written in shorthand some loo years
go by Rev. John Hooker.
Notwithstanding the quite common use
f shorthand in this country before and
uring Revolutionary times. no textbook
r work on shorthand appeared here I'M
i I7S9, the year OF Washington's first in
uguratlon. Previous TO this time about
% systems of shorthand had appeared
, England. and the American practition-