Thomas Arkisden (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1633), was a stenographer, who invented a shorthand alphabet, whilst at

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mo ...

. He settled in

Aspley Guise Aspley Guise is a village and civil parish in the west of Central Bedfordshire, England. In addition to the village of Aspley Guise itself, the civil parish also includes part of the town of Woburn Sands, the rest of which is in the City of Milt ...

, where he was known as the

Bletchley Bletchley is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England, in the south-west of the city, split between the civil parishes in England, civil parishes of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford and West Bletchley, which In 2011 had a com ...

minster.

Life

Arkisden was born around 1608 to Thomas Arkisden and his wife Francis Durrant. his name as alternately spelled Archisden, Archensden, and Arkasdon The senior Arkisden had been a land owner, but died before Arkisden and his brother came of age, leaving the pair under the guardianship of Henry Sande, a minister. There he became friends with the Winthrop family, including

John Winthrop the Younger John Winthrop the Younger FRS (February 12, 1606 – April 6, 1676) was an English politician and alchemist. An early governor of the Connecticut Colony, he played a large role in the unification of the colony's settlements into a singular ...

. When Sande died

John Winthrop John Winthrop (January 12, 1588 – March 26, 1649) was an English Puritan lawyer and a leading figure in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the fir ...

took responsibility for him. Arkisden was educated at

(B.A. 1629–30; M.A. 1633). Arkisden married Alice Sparker, one of ten children of Reverend William Sparker, Rector of Bletchley in 1636 and went on to become a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

rector at

, Bedfordshire, under the patronage of Sir

Oliver Luke Sir Oliver Luke (1574–c.1651) of Woodend, Cople and Hawnes, Bedfordshire was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of England from 1614 to 1648. Biography Luke was born at Cople, Bedfordshire, the son of Sir Nicholas Luke and ...

and spent much time as the

minister. Arkisden would go on two have nine children, the eldest was named Alice after her mother and born in 1637, the second was William in 1641, carrying on until their youngest in 1675. Arkisden was buried in the same parish on 16 June 1682.

Shorthand

While at the university he invented a shorthand alphabet, which has acquired a peculiar interest in consequence of its similarity to other early systems of stenography published somewhat later, especially to those of William Cartwright and his nephew, Jeremiah Rich, the latter of whom lays claim in his 'Art's Rarity' (1654) to absolute originality. The alphabet is given in the 'Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society'.

References

Attribution

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arkisden, Thomas Stenographers 17th-century English people