ijd, xijd what do they mean?

**Zen Rabbit** · 08-09-2010, 4:15 PM

I have found some old documentation in which it says in regard to the distribution of one hundred pounds benefaction "to Richard Hatton, xijd, to his sister Mary Yeats xijd, unto George Stanton ijs, and thus much after this manner...." I assume that it is an amount of money but how to interpret it? Doesn't fit any understanding of Roman numerals that I am familiar with.

**Peter Goodey** · 08-09-2010, 4:34 PM

I would prefer to see the full document but the final "i" in a group was often written as "j" so you could interpret xij as xii. "d" is for pence. So xijd = xiid = 12d = 12 pence (=1 shilling, if memory serves me

).

Mind you, I won't be surprised if someone puts me right here!

**Peter Goodey** · 08-09-2010, 5:25 PM

And for completeness, ijs = 2 shillings.

**Kerrywood** · 08-09-2010, 5:37 PM

I agree with Peter.

Zen, you might find this page of our website useful.

BeeE586 · 08-09-2010, 10:42 PM

Another quirk is that often the clerks did not strictly adhere to £ s d.

For instance you might find xviijd instead of js vjd ( one shilling and six pence) or xls instead of two pounds. Often the £ was not used but Li - Libra - which can lead to confusion when you get li for the pound sign and lj standing for fifty one.

Sometimes you migh find at the end of a sum of money the word ob which can stand for a halfpenny.

On many occasions I have torn my hair when trying to add up an inventory running into eighty or ninety pounds in total - all in a wild variation of Latin numbers. Some rentals that I have read also had an extra column for farthings.

Eileen

**Peter Goodey** · 09-09-2010, 7:08 AM

Eve McLaughlin's booklet Simple Latin for Family Historians costs next to nothing and is well worth getting.

Geoffers · 09-09-2010, 7:55 AM

Originally Posted by Peter Goodey

Eve McLaughlin's booklet Simple Latin for Family Historians costs next to nothing and is well worth getting.

.................and for those who browse around The National Archives web-site there is a lot of interest, including

Beginners' and Advanced Latin and Latin Palaeography.

The guide includes wordlists - date, numbers, etc personal names spelling

There is aword list glossaryand grammar table