Secretary hand developed during the early sixteenth century as a easily legible style of handwriting for court and other government business. It derived from the Book Hand of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as well as the Court Hand used for government and legal documents, and was quickly adopted for business, government, church and personal use. Secretary hand is commonly found when reading old wills, probate records, and even parish records, from England, Scotland and other European countries during the 16th and early 17th centuries.
One of the best ways to identify secretary hand is to look for letters which tend to significantly differ from their modern equivalents: e, c, t, r, s, h and k.
