Tailpiece

Origins

Tailpiece from Annette

I once toyed with an idea for ‘ffriendsnews’ but decided it just looked like a typing error. With thanks to Rob Tindall here is a small extract from one of his ‘Quirks of the Parish Registers’ articles from our Newsletter of September 2007.

It was not until relatively recently that spelling became standardised (or nearly so) and throughout the literature proper names i.e. of people and places show amazing variations. It sometimes helps to say the words out loud and a general rule for the parish clerk seems to have been “write it as it is pronounced”. This however isn’t immutable and one curious feature runs through the early years of Elsdon Register, but not in the parish’s neighbours -- the use of the double ff.

• 1673 John Hall ffarnecleughe bur.
• 1676 James Kirkhope ffallolees bur.
• 1686 Issabell dau. of Edwd fflecher bapt.
• 1686 Jo ffenwick Otterburn maryd Mabell Potts Monkridge Hall
• 1692 Mabell dau. of Geo Hall Elsdon & fflorence his wife bur.”