Hammermen in St.Andrews

[Ryohei56]

Hi. With the blessing of the Head Archivist at St. Andrews University, I have started work on transcribing The Minute Book of the Guild of Hammermen in St. Andrews. This document covers a period from the 1550s to around 1791.

I recently completed the section from 1731 to 1791 - this is in an Italic Hand and was relatively straightforward, though at 68 pages it took a while. The remainder is in the older (and more difficult) Secretary Hand, and covers around 260 pages, give or take.

I'm looking for anyone who might be interested in giving me a hand in attacking this task. Admittedly, Secretary Hand looks pretty weird and almost incomprehensible at first sight, but it's surprising how quickly it gives up its secrets. To be honest, even if all someone did was to take a page and go through it identifying whatever words they could (no matter how few) that would be a great help.

If you are interested, please either reply here or send me a pm. I'm afraid there's no money in it, but I'm pretty sure the Uni intend to publish eventually, and I'll be making sure that appropriate credit is given.

Thanks

Alan Stewart

p.s. I've run this by the moderators and they're fine with me asking.