Notes on John Byrom

Notes by Herbert Hulme on:

• John Byrom his Cheshire Shorthand pupils;
• John Byrom and the Wesleys at Baguley New Hall;
• Mr Lloyd of Hulme Hall, friend of Byrom;
• Helsby family of Knob Hall.

John Byrom (1692-1763) was a Manchester poet and created a system of shorthand. Born at Kersall Cell, Broughton, he was educated at Chester, London and Trinity College Cambridge. He became a fellow of Trinity in 1714, but lost his fellowship when he decided to take holy orders. In 1723 he presented his Proposals Printed May 27th, 1723, for Printing and Publishing a New Method of Shorthand at Cambridge. His system was widely adopted, and in March 1724 Byrom was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He taught his system to pupils in London, Cambridge and Oxford, and in 1739 printed new proposals. An act of parliament in May 1742 gave Byrom sole rights to the system for twenty-one years. It was finally published in its entirety in 1767 as The Universal English Short-Hand. Byrom also wrote poetry, ranging from comic verse to serious poems which discussed morality or religion. The poem by which he is now best known is the hymn, Christians, awake, salute the happy morn (1749).