Thomas Shelton (stenographer)

Thomas Shelton (* 1600/01 perhaps in the county of Norfolk ; † 1650 (?) In London ) was an English stenographer and the inventor of the most widely used shorthand in English-speaking countries of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Life

Thomas Shelton taught shorthand in London from the early 1620s until his death, presumably in early 1650. Nothing for sure is known about his origins and training, but it has been suggested that he might come from the well-known Shelton family, who owned much land in the county of Norfolk. His year of birth 1600/01 can be deduced from the fact that the edition of his "Tachygraphie" from 1647 contains a portrait of him on which his age is given as 46. How u. a. from the dedications of his books it appears that Shelton was on the side of Parliament in the English Civil War ; his religious sympathy was for Puritanism . Shelton must have known the shorthand from John Willis , as he adopted its basic geometric principle for his own shorthand.

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Thomas Shelton's shorthand alphabet

Shelton invented a new stenographic system and published it in 1626 in the book " Short-Writing " (in later editions since 1635 under the name " Tachygraphy ", ancient Greek for "Schnellschrift"). In Shelton's shorthand system, each consonant was expressed by a simple symbol that was sometimes similar to the letter on which it was based.

Examples of vocalization in Shelton's shorthand

The vowels were indicated by the height of the following consonant. The B symbol with the L symbol written directly above it meant “ ball ”, while the B symbol with the L symbol below it meant “ bull ”. The B symbol with the L symbol at the top right meant “ bell ”, right in the middle “ bill ”, at the bottom right “ boll ”. A vowel at the end of a word was indicated by a period in the corresponding position. There were additional symbols for initial vowels. Further symbols for common prefixes and suffixes as well as for consonant connections were added.

Excerpt from a secret diary of Samuel Pepys in Shelton's tachygraph (with a few words in normal letters)

A disadvantage of Shelton's shorthand was that vowels and diphthongs could not be distinguished. The “ bat ” designation could also mean “ bait ” or “ bate ” and the “ bot ” designation could also mean “ boot ” or “ boat ”. This could only be decided from the context. One advantage of the system was that it was relatively easy to learn. This resulted in more than 20 editions of the “tachygraphy” between 1626 and 1710. A French edition appeared in Paris in 1681 and a German edition in Leipzig in 1743 . However, decades earlier, in 1679, Charles Aloysius Ramsay had published a German shorthand system based on Shelton without slavishly imitating him.

Shelton's shorthand was u. a. used by Samuel Pepys in his famous secret diaries and by Sir Isaac Newton . Even US President Thomas Jefferson used a simple form of Shelton's shorthand.

Presumably as a reaction to unauthorized pirated prints of his "Tachygraphie", Shelton invented and published a completely new shorthand system in the probable year of his death in 1650, which he called "Zeiglographia" and which should be even faster. At that time z. B. often sermons are stenographed; therefore the pointerlography contained some special abbreviations for expressions often used in sermons, e.g. B. the letter symbols of " lvg " stood for " love of God ". However, this shorthand system did not become as popular as its tachygraphy.

literature

• Frances Henderson: Shelton, Thomas (1600 / 01-1650?). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Volume 50: Sharp-Smiles. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861400-4 , pp. 222–223, ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of: 2004 For an older version of this article see :.
  Thompson Cooper :  Shelton, Thomas (1601-1650?) . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 52:  Shearman - Smirke. , MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1897, pp. 45 - 46 (English, ( DjVu format; on Wikisource )).
• Alexander Tremaine Wright: Thomas Shelton, tachygrapher . London 1896. 24 pp.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Charles Aloysius Ramsay: Tacheographia or rapid writing art, by means of which anyone can write the German language as quickly as it can be spoken , 1679
2. ^ Adele Davidson: Shakespeare in shorthand. The textual mystery of King Lear , (University of Delaware Press) 2009, p. 56
3. ↑ Page with corresponding abbreviations in a pointer graphical manual ( memento of the original from May 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.