Clerke?

[Taylor94]

Hello,

Would I be correct in thinking this is 'Clerke'?

I've been trying to find the parents of Ann who married Fulke/Fulco Button, Gentleman, of Kimcote, Leicestershire c1580-1639. In Ann's will of 1642 (Can be seen on FindMyPast) she mentions 'Grandfather ?Clerke?' as giving some money in his will to her children, which I think is her father as she already mentions 'Grandfather Button' (Father of Fulke) in the will giving money to her children as well.
It doesn't help that there doesn't appear to be a marriage record between them, that I have found yet.

[horselydown86]

The _lerke part of the word is fairly clear and beyond doubt.

The first letter isn't so clear.

It could be a lower-case c with a flourish at the left, or the whole may be meant as an upper-case C.  If it's meant to be upper-case it's an unusual form.

Can you see if there's another instance of this form in the will and post a clip?

You can also post a larger clip with the Grandfather part included.  There's no issue with the rules in posting a larger extract than this one.

I don't have FindMyPast access unfortunately.

[Taylor94]

The word Grandfather is clear to me, I just included it as I think the word is the surname of the grandfather and in the will its wrote as 'Grandfather Clerke*'.

This letter is nowhere else on the will apart from another mention of 'Grandfather _lerke'. The 'c' in 'county' is not spelt like it either. It does look like a 'c' just with a flourish at the top left like you suggest but why only do this on this word and no other words beginning with 'C' in the will. I think it may be meant as a flourished upper case 'C'.

[horselydown86]

If you would like, post clips of the County and any other examples of C or c which might be helpful.

[Taylor94]

These are the spellings of 'county', 'church' and another mention of '_lerke'.

[horselydown86]

Thanks for posting the extra images.

The examples of lower-case c are exactly what I'd expect for the period.

Given that he's used the peculiar form again for the name, I suppose it must be how he writes his upper-case C.

[Watson]

I'd be pretty sure it's an upper case C.  I see an example that is quite similar in W.S.B. Buck's Examples of Handwriting 1550-1650, page 6 (start of fifth line).

[horselydown86]

Thanks, Watson.  Useful to know.