 A Royal Night Cap
This extraordinary garment once belonged to King Charles I. Made of silk, embroidered with silver and gold thread and embellished with silver and gold lace this really was a cap made for a king. Find out its story and how it came to be in the Archive and Heritage Service collections by visiting our YouTube site - https://youtu.be/c-qWjNlzrIU
To find out more about some of the different hats in the collections visit the Learning Room blog - https://shcvolunteers.wordpress.com
 Extract from Quarter Sessions Roll - 194-26
Volunteer Co-ordinator Mel Williamson explores her experience of developing her skills in palaeography.
Last year I didn’t really know what palaeography was. I definitely may have had it confused with palaeontology and thought it was something to do with dinosaurs! It is of course, the study of handwriting and I have been getting to grips with some very challenging handwriting these past few months.
I am the new Volunteer Coordinator for Staffordshire Archives and Heritage. Previously, I worked with the County Museum Collection and I am much more used to physical objects rather than paper documents, so it’s been a fascinating challenge to get into the world of early modern handwriting. Formal documents were written in secretary hand, and several of our volunteers are looking at original court documents from the 16th and 17th centuries.
The letters each take on completely different formations, and in many documents you can see individual flourishes made by the writer over some letters. Some words can be abbreviated, so they are shortened but have fancy embellishments over the top of the word, or an extra curl at the end. Once you become familiar with these documents you see repeated words and formats, which does make it easier.
I find that the most challenging part is trying not to read the letters that you see as modern letters. It’s like learning to read all over again! In many cases you need to break down the words and decipher letter by letter. There are lots of common points that can trip you up such as a ‘c’ looking like a modern day ‘r’. An ‘e’ is often written backwards, and the most well known example is the long ‘s’ that looks like an ‘f’. To the modern reader many of the documents look like they are written in code.
Although it is tough, it is really rewarding when you work out a particularly difficult piece of text. Quite often, I find when I can’t work out a letter or word. I leave it a while, and looking at it with fresh eyes makes all the difference.
To read the full article and to start your own voyage of palaeography discovery visit our Learning Room blog.
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