Help with writing in a book

[ajclarkier]

Hey everyone, I'm new, thanks in advance for any help. Deciphering writing in a bunch of old family books.

In this one, I have the first initials, and of course the number, but I don't know what to make of the letters in the middle--it looks like "R Nc." or something of the sort but it doesn't make much sense.

I thought it could be part of an address due to the number that follows, but the extra loop on the R and the other marks after the "N" have me scratching my head.

It's possible the letters might not be the English/Latin alphabet--e.g. maybe Greek, but I'm not familiar with Greek handwritten script. Or could it be some kind of shorthand?

Obviously I'm completely lost. Any ideas?

[Treetotal]

Hi and welcome to RootsChat, sorry, I can't make any sense of it but this will bring it back up the board for a response.
Carol

[Bookbox]

Something like ...
H.P.B. R’ N^o. 554

Not at all sure about the middle initial.
Perhaps R’ for 'Receipt', or R^d for 'Received' ?
Maybe some sort of cataloguing system?
I can’t see any Greek here.

[Lisa in California]

Welcome to RootsChat.  . I’m probably way off the actual meaning, but it reminds me of a road sign that I saw decades ago in Quebec City (or France).

Could the writing be:
R’ (rue), N^c, 554

Hopefully, someone will come along with the real meaning if it wasn’t what Bookbox suggested.

[tonepad]

A note about Ramsay MacDonald?

"MacDonald returned to lead a government with a huge majority, but 470 of the 554 National Government MPs were Conservatives."

https://thehistoryofparliament.wordpress.com/2016/09/21/labour-unrest-ramsay-macdonald-and-the-labour-party-1931/


Tony

[Girl Guide]

Can you tell us the name of the book?  It might give a clue as to what the handwriting refers to.

[ajclarkier]

Can you tell us the name of the book?  It might give a clue as to what the handwriting refers to.

Thanks to all of you for the curious and creative ideas!

The book is called The Philosophy of Mystery, by Walter Dendy, and is from 1845.

And yes, tonepad, I could see that last part being a reference to a Mc or Mac surnmame...

I'm pretty sure the book would have lived in London in the late 1800s (though there's a Manchester bookseller's label) so I was trying to figure out if the Nc might correspond to a contemporary postal code system, but that seems to be a dead end.

Bookbox, some kind of internal private library cataloguing system definitely seems plausible. "R^D" for "received" is intriguing...And thanks for ruling out Greek...

The book has a spiritualist/supernatural phenomena theme, so it's also possible that this is some kind of symbolic or coded reference of the sort that those occultist types loved. I've thrown this up on another discussion forum in that vein to see if anything pops out to anyone there...

Thanks again for playing along with a newb, folks!

[ptdrifter]

Anything to do with Rand McNally , publishers?

[Lisa in California]

…The book is called The Philosophy of Mystery, by Walter Dendy, and is from 1845…

Wow, small world; the Dendy name pops up again (in a thread in which I’ve contributed, not as a result of an internet search).

A friend of mine is a descendant of Walter Cooper Dendy’s sibling. When we first met (and started talking about genealogy), we were amazed to find out that our ancestors once lived in the same town, around the same time - he has Cooper Dendy ancestors, I have Cooper ancestors. I tried to find a connection between our families but I was never able to find the link.  But, at the very least, two generations of my Parker, Vaus and Cooper ancestors knew his ancestors as they were all church wardens.