Revival of Shorthand in England.—England was the birthplace of modern shorthand. The publication by Dr. Timothy Bright in 1588 of his Charac erie: an Arte of Shork, Swifte, and Secrete Writing by Character marked the beginning of this development in England. Bright's system was invented dur ing the reign of Queen Elizabeth and dedicated to her. It provided that each sign could be given four different slopes, and that the base of each could be modified by 12 varying terminations.
With the publication of the Arte of Stenographie in 1602 by John Willis began the introduction of the systems based on tha alphabet. These systems are sometimes referred to as ortho graphic, because they followed the spelling of the words, omit ting silent letters and in many cases the vowels in a word. One of the best known of these orthographic systems is that of Thomas Shelton, published about 1630, in which the famous diary of Samuel Pepys was kept. In 1767, Dr. John Byrom published his Universal English Shorthand. His principal contri bution to the art was greater lineality in writing, and representa tion of the five vowels by writing a dot in five different positions with respect to the consonant outline. His system was popular
ized by Thomas Molyneux, who published seven cheap editions between 1793 and 1825. In 1786, Samuel Taylor published in London an Essay Intended to Establish a Standard for a Universal System of Stenography. He simplified his system considerably by limiting each letter to one sign, except w, and by the elimination of a great many of the arbitrary signs that had characterized previous systems. His system was eventually adapted for use in France, Italy, Holland, Sweden, Germany and other Con tinental countries.
Development of Phonetic Shorthand.—Most of the early systems of shorthand in England were orthographic or alpha betic, but the idea of writing according to sound continued to gain in favour. The first published system using a phonetic base was that of William Tiffin (175o). Others were Lyle (1762), Holdsworth and Aldridge (1766), Roe (1802), Phineas Bailey (1819), Towndrow (1831) and De Stains (1839).