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I'm transcribing/translating a 16th century document relating to my ancestors, but struggling with a few words. One in particular is proving difficult - the contracted last word on the 1st line of the supplied text. I can see sh and 3 minims, possible 'a' indicated on the 's'. Not sure what the word could be expanded to - possibly an occupation and possibly in the plural as there is a Thomas Norgate (not shown) as well as John. Any ideas would be much appreciated. enter image description here

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  • Have you come across Du CANGE, Charles du Fresne, 1610-1806? His Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis (in 10 vols) is on line through ARCHIVE. I checked vol six for occupations beginning SH < archive.org/details/glossariummediae06duca/page/n247 where Shawaldres (Gall chevaliers) ( a yeomen farmer, I believe provides own weapons, and horse) caught my eye. Abbreviated here to Shw. Would that fit? Sing. or plural. Not quite an occupation. The page refers you to SCH also::: archive.org/details/glossariummediae06duca/page/n117
    – Hugh
    Commented Jan 10, 2019 at 2:11
  • Haven't seen this material before, thanks for the reference. Shawaldres seems unlikely... but you never know. I think shopa might be taking things in the right direction. What do you think the latin term for a shopkeeper/grocer would be?
    – sandsi
    Commented Jan 11, 2019 at 12:52
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    (Not posting this as an answer because of too low confidence level) My first impression was something like ... de waxtoneshire ... and googling for "Waxton shire" does yield some results which might (not) be relevant for the manuscript's time frame...
    – Dario
    Commented Jan 11, 2019 at 14:13

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Thanks for your interesting question.

I think the key is the sequence ..ptonesh.. which suggests Northamptonshire to me.

et Joh.is Norgate de Naptoneshir

If that doesn't seem likely, Du CANGE, Charles du Fresne, 1610-1806 Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis (in 10 vols) is on line through ARCHIVE. I checked vol six p.247 for occupations beginning SH and found

Shawaldres ( Gallic chevaliers)

The text could be an abbreviation 'Shw' Would that fit? Sing. or plural. Not quite an occupation. The page refers you to SCH also::: archive.org/details/glossariummediae06duca/page/n117 which offers other possible occupations.

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    Hugh, thanks for your answer. However, I think the first line reads 'et Joh[ann]is Norgate de waxtone' before the word I am trying to decipher. Any further suggestions would be gratefully received.
    – sandsi
    Commented Jan 8, 2019 at 15:06

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