Help tp read Chancery Documents

[welshspencer]

Hi all

can anyone help to read these two Chancery Documents. these are the refrences

Chancery Proceedings Vols 1X & X Mainly 1544-58 nos 54 and 55

1178/12-14 John Geyn V Robert Maunder and John Drake, Devon, Lands in Cruwys
Morchard late of John Jete, deceased,grandfather of complainant and
defendents wives..

1226/12-23  John Geyn V John Drake and Robert Maunder, sons in law of hugh
locke and of Joan his wife, Devon. Messuage and land in Lottelond, Thorn and
fowelscomb  (? in Ugborough) formerly of John Wryght and Thomas Locke.

[RichardK]

Have you tried the tutorial on how to read such documents here:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography/default.htm?homepage=exhibit-palaeography

Might help?
R

[welshspencer]

Hi thansk for that. but am hoping someone can help on here

[welshspencer]

Can any one help on reading these...

[PrueM]

Patience, Welshspencer 

These are very long documents and the writing as it shows on the screen is very small, not to mention the script and spelling being difficult to read - it might take people a while to work out what's written, but I have to say the amount that you're asking people to work on is possibly putting a few people off.

How about posting a small section of one of them, like the first few lines, in a larger size?  You can upload a larger file to an image-hosting website like Photobucket etc. which people can then download from.  With the transcription of a few lines, you might then be able to work out the rest of the document by yourself 

[welshspencer]

Patience Lol these were posted in Feb 2008. the documents can be downloaded from this page,,and then can be zoomed in..

[PrueM]

Oops, sorry    I read that as February 2009...

Have you got any further with deciphering them yourself?

Zooming in makes the image larger but the quality is poor so it is very pixellated and hard to read.

[welshspencer]

lol that's ok,   am afraid am not good at reading old documents,,will ask my cousin if she can get better scans

[JAP]

Hi welshspencer,

The only way to improve one's skills at reading old handwriting is by persevering and practising 

There are some additional sites (not just the Nat Archives one) mentioned under Old Handwriting and Handwriting in Wills in Berlin-Bob's Lexicon of Genealogical Terms, Phrases and Abbreviations.^(*)

I fully agree with Prue's comments - not just that it is quite a big ask but especially that, if one zooms in on the documents, they become excessively pixellated and very difficult to decipher.

Perhaps you could try for a better scan of just one of the documents for a start?

And perhaps type out anything which has been able to be deciphered to date by you or by other people who are looking at the documents?

I'll then be happy to try to help but at present it's all a bit too hard!

Best of luck,

JAP



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