His Mark

[Phoenix]

Several of my Alborowe ancestors have left wills.

William Alborowe, yeoman of Sharrington, Norfolk makes his will 22 April 1639. It is proved within a short space of time.

He signs it with his initials. WA.

But they are upside down!

I have a photocopy of the actual will and there seems little doubt that this is the same man who was churchwarden over thirty years earlier.

I get the impression of someone who is bright enough to have seen and recognised his initials, but only when he was looking across a table at a document someone else was holding.

Has anyone else come across this?