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Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Addy, William

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578477Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 01 — Addy, William1885John Eglington Bailey

ADDY, WILLIAM (fl. 1685), a writing-master in London, was the author of a system of shorthand published in 1685. The method, a modification of that of Jeremiah Rich, was so much practised that the Bible, the New Testament, and the Singing Psalms were published, according to its system, two years later. The 1695 edition of his work was entitled ‘Stenographia, or the Art of Short-Writing compleated in a far more compendious methode than any yet extant,’ 12mo. It was engraved throughout. The Bible had a portrait of Addy, engraved by Sturt from a painting by Barker; and the same engraver executed the rest of the work. In subsequent editions of the Bible the preliminary leaves were changed, and the book dedicated to King William. All the title-pages are dated 1687.

[James H. Lewis's Hist. of Shorthand, p. 94.]