Writing in a New Testament

[Top-of-the-hill]

   I need some help with what is written in the front of this book, which seems to have passed through several hands. I am pretty sure I know where John Pay fits in, but it is the rest of the page which is the puzzle. There is another page which I may come back with later. The book is very battered.

[spendlove]

Hi,

This book was Re Bound, August ?  ?A73.


John Peay. Buckland

Near Kent
 1802

[arthurk]

I agree with spendlove, and I'd suggest the date might be August 10 1875. However, I'm not sure about the year - there appears to be a horizontal line as part of the third digit, suggesting 7 rather than 1, but I think the style of the 8 would fit 1815 far better.

At the bottom it's a line of Hebrew, but a bit is missing bottom right. Could you possibly include that, please? (It might be possible to guess without it, but if there is more it would help to be able to see it.) It might be a word or two from the Hebrew Old Testament; otherwise you sometimes see names written in Hebrew script, though typically on Jewish memorials, which wouldn't fit easily with it being a New Testament.

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Thank you - I can see Re Bound now. There is no more of the Hebrew included on my picture, so I will have to check with the current owner. It could have been trimmed when the book was rebound? Did they use the cross on the 7 back then?

[arthurk]

There is no more of the Hebrew included on my picture, so I will have to check with the current owner. It could have been trimmed when the book was rebound?

It's more that the photo cuts off the bottom of the page, so the bottom of the letter (first in the word/phrase, as Hebrew is right-to-left) is also cut off.

Did they use the cross on the 7 back then?

I think the one across the stem is part of the crossing out. I'm looking at a fainter one at the top.

[Top-of-the-hill]

  I see what you mean about the seven. This battered little book seems to have quite a history, which I now want to sort out, including how it came to our part of the family.

[Bookbox]

I believe the 'Hebrew' is simply Re Bound 1815, in English, with the syllables written phonetically in the Hebrew alphabet (resh yod beit alef (with 'o' below) vav nun daled).

[arthurk]

Bookbox - I think you could well be right. And the date of 1815 agrees with a possible interpretation of the year at the top. (I had - honest! - been starting to wonder if the line at the top of the third digit was also part of the crossing out.)

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Goodness! So you both think the rebinding was in 1815, which explains the old-fashioned figure 8? And what a strange thing about the Hebrew letters. John was a working man with many children, but they were members of the Baptist church, and I have just seen in the register that he witnessed many of the birth entries.
   Thank you all; I may be back with another page!