Illustrated manuscript reading
1662-01-13 (court/index date; death in 1661, month unresolved)
National Records of Scotland, Lanark Commissary Court, CC14/5/6, images 138-139; indexed 13 January 1662
Second manuscript pass · 10 September 2026
New readings and unchanged uncertainties are both recorded. A confirmed name or role does not by itself confirm a WikiTree identity or a relationship.
image 138, opening
images 138-139, page-break confirmation
image 138, opening
image 138, confirmation
images 138-139, inventory/security
Follow the handwriting
The place designation is more secure than the proposed family reading. Enlarging the two surviving John Glasgow forms shows what can actually be read, while the unboxed words around them remain too faded or grammatically uncertain to create a family link.
Follow the writing line. Ascenders rise above small letters; descenders fall below them. A neighbouring line can cross the word you are reading.
Count the short strokes. These are called minims. Joined i, m, n and u shapes can be ambiguous; compare a clear repeated word by the same clerk rather than guessing from a modern alphabet.
Separate reading from expansion. A contraction is not a fully written modern word. Square brackets retain doubtful letters or editorial additions. A familiar legal formula is a clue, not permission to fill a gap.
Then assess the relationship. Reading a name securely is not the same as proving kinship. Look for the actual role words and who they refer to.
Learn with the archive: Secretary-hand tutorial · Testament vocabulary.
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The reading desk
Choose a name or relationship below. Compare the original ink, a paper-free view and the same spelling in a secretary-hand teaching font. Open the reasoning only when you need it.
Proposed readingJohn Glasgow
This is the readable name in the locality step. The adjoining Quothquan/Libberton wording and any relationship are outside this letterform study.
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John Glasgow
The white-background view suppresses paper colour; reviewed focus boundaries exclude separable neighbouring fragments where available. It does not restore missing strokes. Colour follows retained source pixels inside proposed letter groups, not a reconstructed pen path. Ambiguous crossings remain neutral where reviewed; other crossing ink may still belong to another line.
The font repeats the proposed spelling, not this clerk's handwriting. Similarity is a teaching aid, not confirmation; uncertainties remain in the reading above.
Expansion: John Glasgow
Confidence: high for the personal name
Evidence boundary: The visible J and descending g support the maintained reading John Glasgow, without resolving the following faded descriptor or asserting sonship.
Teaching typeface: Joscelyn by Peter S. Baker, based on a different Renaissance secretary hand. SIL Open Font License. Source images remain separate and unchanged.
National Records of Scotland, CC14/5/6, image 138; Crown copyright
Choose a phrase to locate it in the manuscript. Only its outline is shown, so overlapping strokes stay readable.
On the page
... John Glasgow in Quodquen ... / within the parochin of Libbertoun ...
In modern English
John Glasgow in Quothquan, within Libberton parish.
The opening puts the deceased's name on the line beneath the testament heading. The following line supplies the parish designation. Quodquen is the maintained literal place form normalized as Quothquan in the working reading, but its right-edge position and cramped text make it harder to inspect than the name. The locality words remain deliberately unboxed rather than being presented as equally clear letter-by-letter demonstrations.
The record concerns a John Glasgow in the Quothquan/Libberton locality.
A name and locality do not alone identify a particular WikiTree John or establish relationships to other Quothquan Glasgows.
High for the maintained locality reading; the right-edge place spelling is less easy to inspect in this crop.
Slow reading
Compare the original strokes with the proposed reading. Tall or trailing strokes from neighbouring lines may enter a sample; the notes distinguish what is visible from what remains uncertain.
Phrase 01
John Glasgow
Compare in this hand: The next image repeats John Glasgow in a paler administrative continuation.
Reading limits: The personal name is secure; this box does not independently demonstrate the adjacent Quodquen or Libbertoun spellings.
National Records of Scotland, CC14/5/6, image 139; Crown copyright
Choose a phrase to locate it in the manuscript. Only its outline is shown, so overlapping strokes stay readable.
On the page
... the said John Glasgow [following words unresolved] ... / the said defunct ...
In modern English
John Glasgow is named in the confirmation, but the following description and its grammatical connection remain unresolved.
The name is visible toward the right of the first line, but the following faded words are not secure enough to transcribe as lawfull or to connect grammatically to the deceased. A familiar confirmation formula is not permission to supply sone. The walkthrough therefore enlarges only the readable name and keeps the missing relationship wording visible as unresolved rather than turning it into a genealogical edge.
John Glasgow is named in the administrative continuation.
This crop does not securely prove that an executor was the deceased's lawful son or establish the executor's full identity.
Low for the proposed relationship phrase; no sonship asserted.
Slow reading
Compare the original strokes with the proposed reading. Tall or trailing strokes from neighbouring lines may enter a sample; the notes distinguish what is visible from what remains uncertain.
Phrase 01
John Glasgow
Compare in this hand: The darker John Glasgow in the locality step provides a same-record comparison for the capital J, looped G and final ow.
Reading limits: Only the name is secure here. The following descriptor, its subject and any claimed sonship remain unresolved.
Modern interpretation
This is the testament dative and inventory of John Glasgow in Quothquan, Libberton parish, Lanarkshire. It places his death in 1661 but the month remains unreadable.
Thomas Glasgow is readable in the giver-up/executor-dative passage. The ink immediately after his name does not securely read 'lawful son', and the page-break continuation does not safely establish its grammatical subject.
James Hamilton is the commissary confirming the estate. His presence is official rather than familial.
No parent-child relationship is created from Thomas's participation or from the later occurrence of John Glasgow in the legal continuation.
Evidence and limits
Still open
LLM-assisted working transcription
Square brackets mark uncertainty, editorial expansions or missing text. Ellipses mark omitted or unresolved wording. Numbering identifies lines in this working reading, not official manuscript line numbers. This is not a complete diplomatic edition.
High for the deceased's name, Quodquen/Libberton locality, 1661 death year, entry boundaries, and James Hamilton's office. Moderate for the name Thomas Glasgow. Low for Thomas's following descriptor and any claimed sonship; no kinship is asserted.
Reviewed: 2026-09-10. Method: Codex fresh original-image name, role, and locality audit.
The full originals remain in the local research archive. Selected unaltered crops are shown above for reading and commentary, with separate switchable highlights. Image credit: Crown copyright, National Records of Scotland / ScotlandsPeople. Duplicate downloads are not independent evidence. Consult the original using the reference above through ScotlandsPeople.
No existing profile has been identified securely for this record.