A Sixpence Sized Challenge
Sometimes an archival discovery resonates far beyond the documents themselves. In this blog, Cultural Heritage Officer Eileen Brook-Freeman reflects on an extraordinary find in the Shetland Archives that not only reveals remarkable skill and ingenuity, but also reconnects her with the moment that first sparked her own journey into archives.
Archives volunteer Amber Paton made an exciting discovery whilst sorting the documents of James Williamson, father of well-known historian and genealogist Laurence Williamson of Gardie, Mid Yell.
Attached to a letter from Margaret Mathewson, penned only weeks before her death from tuberculosis in September 1880, was a small piece of paper with a circle the size of a sixpence with The Lord’s Prayer written on it by her father, East Yell teacher and surveyor Andrew Dishington Mathewson.
On closer examination, using a powerful magnifying machine, archives staff discovered that the prayer was not inscribed once, but five times! This however was no surprise to me, as I had seen another copy as a bairn. In fact, it and other family documents stored in a kist belonging to his grand-daughter first ignited my interest in archives, later sending me on this career path. As soon as I saw the new find it took me straight back to the excitement of first seeing the sixpence in East Yell.
In 2017, whilst researching Mathewson for lectures in Edinburgh and Lerwick and a subsequent published article, I enquired if this document survived within the Mathewson papers now deposited in the Shetland Archives or was still held locally, but no-one had seen it. My talk ‘Trowe da Lookin Gless: A. D Mathewson’s Shetland’ highlighted the benefits of modern tools such as magnifiers and scanners to read the minuscule handwriting favoured by Mathewson and his prodigy Laurence Williamson.
Most folk will question why on earth Mathewson did this. I think it was firstly to challenge himself and later rising to the challenge of his offspring. In a letter to son Arthur in 1870 he states:
"Margt having stated to somebody that I could write the Lords Prayer 6 times on a Sixpence I set to a few days ago to do so I got it 6 times after several trials and improvements of my pen and at last 7 times which I have this day sent to Margt … And[rew] kept the 6 times one and till get a finer one I send you one 5 times but Margt can show you the 7 times one if not given away
My Microscope was not good enough more than my pen were both or either improved, it would be got oftner.
I now wonder how many copies my great great great grandad made and whether others survive. It is hard to comprehend how anyone could manage to write The Lord’s Prayer more than once within a diameter of 19.4 mm using a quill or nib pen, never mind inscribing 335, 402 or even 469 words with enough space between the words and lines to be able to read once magnified.
Why not challenge yourself as see how many you can achieve! I’ve tried with a sharpened pencil and managed to write almost one and a half times, just with the naked eye. Perhaps using a strong magnifier, I might get closer to two or even three times, but nowhere near the five times now available to view in Shetland Archives. Do let us know how you get on with this quirky challenge and if you know of any more copies of the special sixpences.
The Lord’s Prayer as rendered on the sixpence
Our Father who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.
