Jessie’s handwriting
Jessie’s name
One page of the copybook
This is the copybook of Jessie Grasham in 1866. In Victorian times, handwriting was considered very important. Copybooks were ruled with lines and each page was printed with two phrases to be copied. The phrases were wise sayings that the pupils were encouraged to think about while they mechanically copied the words.
The phrases on this page are, “One good head avails more than a hundred strong arms”, and “Good sense turns misfortunes to some account”. Today, how many adults let alone children would know the meaning of “avails”?
At the bottom of each page Jessie wrote her name, date and location, which is extremely helpful to us more than 150 years later. She was a farmer’s daughter in Yarburgh, about five miles north of Louth. The Yarburgh parochial schoolroom had been built in 1860, a decade before education became compulsory in 1870. The pupils wrote with a dip pen and had to be careful not to blot their copybook, an expression we still use today.
Jessie’s birth had been registered in 1860 (in April, May or June) and she was baptised on 12 August 1860, which means that she was producing this beautiful handwriting in March 1866 when she was not quite six years old! No wonder her family treasured and kept this copybook that records what an accomplished little girl she was.
We are grateful to Mr Bill Grasham for sharing this copybook with us.