Abbreviation in wills

[arthurk]

Please can anyone help with an abbreviation which I've seen in several wills in the 17th and 18th centuries? This particular abbreviation occurs with words that today we would spell with a "...tion" ending, and in each case appears as a very specific squiggle above the ending, which is abbreviated to "...con".

In the following example from a 1728 will, it can be seen in the word in the middle, which clearly means "mediations":



While I know that squiggles above words indicate missing letters, this one seems to be very specific and elaborate, unlike others in the same will, which are just a simple line, e.g. to indicate a missing "m" in the word "comit". I also know that at the relevant dates, firstly, different squiggles were sometimes used to indicate very specific letter omissions, and secondly, that words such as "mediation" could be spelt in various ways, including "mediacions", "mediaciouns".

I'm not sure if I should be transcribing such words as "...cions" or "...ciouns" - so is it possible to infer from the squiggle exactly which spelling was intended? It does seem a rather elaborate and time-wasting device if it was used instead of just an "i", but none of the reference books I've looked at, nor the National Archives guide to palaeography, seems to have any examples just like this.

Thanks for any help,
Arthur