Another possible explanation I have come across is that a literate
person might not have wanted to embarrass another who could not
write when signing eg a marriage register.
Mike H.
Email: micronic(a)hallmark.kc3ltd.co.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: AlwynapHuw(a)aol.com <AlwynapHuw(a)aol.com>
To: WLS-MONTGOMERYSHIRE-L(a)rootsweb.com
<WLS-MONTGOMERYSHIRE-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Date: 19 October 2002 00:56
Subject: Re: LEWIS, Machynlleth/EVANS, Llangranog CGN
In a message dated 19/10/2002 00:33:51 GMT Daylight Time,
Randi(a)liene.freeserve.co.uk writes:
> I have searched for the Evans/Lewis marriage without success.
> I sent for a certificate once and realised it could not be our
couple
> because that John Evans used 'his mark' -
> and a bookbinder/printer ought not to be illiterate!
>
The fact that a person used his or her "mark" is not proof positive
of
illiteracy. I have seen many examples of people that I know could
read and
write using a mark on certificates. I have an example of a woman
signing her
marriage certificate and putting a cross on a child's birth
certificate two
years latter, and I have Sunday school teacher who taught others to
read and
write Xing on certificates
Perhaps the best known example of this comes from a letter sent by
(Sir) O.
M. Edwards to his brother (now preserved in the National Library.
In it Owen
complains of his embarrassment at having to produce his birth
certificate on
entering Oxford University, showing that the informant, his father,
had used
a cross, despite having learned to write as a child.
The explanation given is that registrars assumed that working class
Welsh
people who couldn't read English must be illiterate and they
instructed them
to "put a cross here". Not being able to read the English
instructions on the
form to "sign", and being obedient to people in authority -
they
did
precisely as instructed and put a cross, despite being perfectly
able to
write their names.
So the certificate with the X from your bookbinder and printer MAY
turn out
to be the one that you want
Regards
Alwyn
PS - lest anyone should say "my ggg granddad's certificate from
1840 is in
English & Welsh" I should explain that copies of certificates
issued in Wales
since the 1970's are produced on bilingual forms. The actual forms
used
before the 1970's were in English only