Thomas Gurney (shorthand writer)

Thomas Gurney (1705–1770) was an English shorthand-writer.

Gurney was born at Woburn, Bedfordshire, on 7 March 1705. His father, John, though of an ancient family (his descent is traced in the "Record of the House of Gournay"), belonged to the yeoman class, and was a substantial miller with a large family. Thomas was intended for a farmer, but his inclination for books and mechanics was so decided, that when put to farming the lad twice ran away.

He then learned clockmaking, and soon afterwards became a schoolmaster at Newport Pagnell and Luton.

His connection with shorthand was brought about accidentally. In order to obtain a work on astrology, about which he had a boyish curiosity, he purchased at a sale a lot containing an edition of William Mason's "Shorthand," which he studied to such purpose that at the age of 16 he began to take down sermons. His notebook of 1722–3 is still preserved, and shows that at that time he used Mason's system with very little alteration.

In 1737 Gurney came to London, and was soon afterwards appointed shorthand-writer at the Old Bailey. The date of the appointment, according to his grandson William Brodie Gurney, and most shorthand historians, was 1737, and this date corresponds with the length of time during which he is said to have practised at the Old Bailey. Gurney himself, however, in the postscript to the fourth edition of Brachygraphy, gives the date 1748. He may have originally practised without an appointment, or may have held a subordinate post for the first ten years. In any case it was the first official appointment of a shorthand-writer, anywhere, although there had been instances of the use of shorthand for official purposes. Gurney also practised in "all the Courts of Justice in the Cities of London and Westminster, Admiralty Courts, Courts-Martial, and trials in divers parts of the Kingdom" and "in the Honorable House of Commons" (postscript to 4th edition of Brachygraphy).

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