I find the suggestions made by others that our ancestors frequently just did as they were told when invited to 'make their mark' by clergymen very convincing.
Something that has always intrigued me is whether the inability to write (even where that is known to be definitely the case) necessarily reflected that one also could not read. Nowadays, given that these two skills are taught together at an early age, it is easy to slip into thinking that of course it does; but I suspect (although with no hard evidence to support it) that that may not necessarily always have been the case. Being able to read (particularly the Bible) would surely have been of far greater importance to many folk in our history than being able to write.
CELTICANNIE
I have the example of a soldier (1888) making his mark when he married, as did bride and both witnesses. A few years later he'd left the army and become a postman, so he could obviously read, or had learned in the meantime.
A report of an inspection of an elementary school in early 19thC Preston, Lancs stated that the boys could write on their slates but when they were given pen, ink & paper their efforts were very poor. The school charged 3d a week per pupil, who had to be clean and neatly dressed, so was attended by working-class children whose families had a few pence spare each week for schooling and could afford soap & water for washing. Later the same school opened a department for older/ more advanced/slightly better-off children, charging 4d, including cost of paper and books. Some pupils wouldn't have progressed beyond the writing on slates stage; some may not even have got so far. A later log book of the same school a few decades later during the Lancashire Cotton Famine mentions children not being able to attend school because their clothes had been pawned. The school roll went down when mills reopened and required older boys and girls. Before compulsory education schooling was sporadic for some children.
A report to Parliament (C1840) on employment of children in mines: (I've quoted this before on RC.)
One Scottish mine owner said he only employed boys who could read and who could write their names. He made them read an application form and sign it in his presence. It was also a way of checking they were old enough to work.
Some Scottish mines stopped a few pence from every adult man's wage for schooling of his child. If he had no child he could nominate a child belonging to someone else. A problem with this system was that the shools were so overcrowded the schoolmaster found it difficult to teach the pupils much. One school inspection found that it was standing-room only. No room to practise writing at that school, they had no desks, only benches on which they stood for lessons.
