The Shorthand of Robert Willis, Physician-in-Extraordinary to King George III
Name
ebljarticle22018.pdf
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1.32 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
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Resource type
Journal article
Creator (person)
Underhill, Timothy
Peters, Timothy
Date published
2018
Abstract
The shorthand used by Robert Willis in documents within the Library’s Willis Papers collection is identified as a system similar to William Fordyce Mavor’s late eighteenth-century Universal Stenography but departing from it in some key respects. Transcriptions are provided of BL, Add. MS. 41734 – Willis’s memorandum of events between 5-8 November 1810, the time of his politically controversial appointment to work alongside official members of George III’s medical household – and also the shorthand contained in his 1810-12 medical notebooks (Add. MS. 41733). A more complex textual relationship than might have been supposed emerges between the latter and the better known longhand medical registers (Add. MS. 41696-41732), with the shorthand furnishing further details about aspects of the King’s behaviour and treatment during this period of relapse into chronic mania with accompanying dementia.
Journal title
Electronic British Library Journal
Volume
2018
Article number
2
Publisher
British Library
Place of publication
London, UK
eISSN
1478-0259
Official URL
Collection