Abbreviation for 'the'

[pkincaid]

I am looking at 18th century church minutes and keep coming across an abbreviation for what appears to be the word 'the'.  I have seen ye before, but this looks quite different.  Anyone know what it represents?  I can't find an example like it, but there must be one somewhere.

The text reads "in a friendly conversation before [the] Session, ... "

Many thanks!

[sugarbakers]

'Palaeography for Family and Local Historians' by Hilary Marshall (excellent) shows a letter of 1712 in very similar script (example 22).
It would appear that "the" is abbreviated by writing just the 'e'. In the transcription Marshall writes [th]e.

Others may know if this has a name 

[Erato]

I think it's the letter 'thorn.'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_%28letter%29
http://www.kenyonreview.org/2009/01/this-post-is-brought-to-ye-by-the-letter-thorn/

[KGarrad]

The modern spelling of "ye" is only spelt with a "y" because we no longer have a thorn letter in our alphabet!
It should be spelled "þe".

Iceland still uses the thorn - I have an Icelandic sister-in-law, whose name is þhora (Thora)

[sugarbakers]

Thank you, Erato & KGarrad, for the explanations. Very interesting.
Now I know it's name I can see that Marshall explains it, and indeed uses example 22 to show its use.

[pkincaid]

Thanks everyone.  It threw me for a loop as I did not expect that in later English texts.

Merry Christmas!

[horselydown86]

With respect, the problem with identifying that character as the thorn letter is that it doesn't look like one.

I have attached an image from a will of 1579 which has plenty of examples of the thorn as it was used in English.  Lower case thorn extends under the line - always (in my experience, of course).

My guess is that sugarbakers was right first time with the reference to Marshall (which I don't have here to confirm).  Did Marshall explicitly mention thorn in her explanation?

Or is it just a clerical shorthand used to speed up writing a common word and understood by any contemporaries who might have read it?

As for the linked blogger:

Thus the word “Ye” is not meant as “You".  Err...yes it is.  Check the King James Bible and the OED.

ADDED: 

Would pkincaid mind posting the date of the extract?  You said C18th.

As you thought, that is a very late thorn.

[sugarbakers]

Marshall simply mentions the thorn character y=th on p. 1, 10, 38.
The index points to 3 documents on p. 1, 2, 22.

1) 1753 uses clear y with e above, transcribed as [th]e, with footnote referring to use of thorn.
2) 1699 very much the same but no footnote.
22) 1712 sloping script with joined sloping form of y with e above, no footnote.

pkincaid's example is much less of a y with e above, but I recognised it as such using the 1712 example from Marshall.

Happy Christmas.

[horselydown86]

Thanks for explaining what is in Marshall, sugarbakers.  I'm not convinced.

First I am puzzled that Marshall would (apparently) not use a single example from earlier than 1699 to illustrate the thorn, when it was almost universal in the C16th and died out through the C17th.

I'm also not convinced that there is a thorn in this extract.  I might accept that it is a shorthand squiggle form of the loosely derived from the general shape of the older y^e.  (Note that I'm not asking anyone to waste their Christmas trying to convince me.)

Merry Christmas.