John Byrom

Early life

Byrom came from an old Lancashire family; his ancestor Ralph Byrom moved to Manchester from Lowton in 1485 and became a prosperous wool merchant. He was born in 1692 at what is now The Old Wellington Inn in Manchester, though some sources place his birth at Kersal Cell. Described as one of the tallest men in the kingdom, he received an excellent education at The King's School, Chester, and Merchant Taylors' School, London, then studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, becoming a fellow in 1714. He later travelled abroad and studied medicine at Montpellier in France.

Byrom and shorthand

After perfecting his shorthand system, Byrom returned to England in 1716. Although some Manchester residents urged him to practise medicine, he judged his abilities insufficient and instead taught his shorthand. Upon inheriting his family estate in 1740, he patented his New Universal Shorthand.

The system was officially taught at both Oxford and Cambridge universities and used by the clerk of the House of Lords. The Byrom's Shorthand Act 1741 secured his sole publishing rights for 21 years. His shorthand was posthumously published as The Universal English Shorthand.

Family life

Byrom lived at Byrom Hall in Lowton from time to time, but largely resided in a town house in Manchester and at Kersal Cell. He had three daughters and a son; his eldest was the diarist Elizabeth "Beppy", and his son was Edward. His favourite daughter was Dorothy, known as Dolly.

In December 1745, after a romp with Dolly, he promised her a Christmas gift. On Christmas morning she found an envelope addressed to her containing the carol "Christians, awake, salute the happy morn". The original manuscript was headed "Christmas Day for Dolly" and first published in Harrop's Manchester Mercury in 1746.

A man of mystery

Byrom moved in elite social and intellectual circles as a Royal Society member during Isaac Newton’s presidency. Modern scholarship suggests he may have been a double agent, nicknamed the “Queen’s Chameleon.” His political ambiguity appears in a verse toast: “God bless the King!

(I mean our faith’s defender!) / God bless! (No harm in blessing) the Pretender. / But who Pretender is, and who is King, / God bless us all! That’s quite another thing!”

He died in 1763 and was buried in his family’s private chapel, now Jesus Chapel in Manchester Cathedral. His papers survived for a time but were mysteriously destroyed in the 1800s. A freemason, he may have belonged to an early quasi-masonic group called the Cabala Club and pursued occult interests. His wife died in December 1778, and his entire estate, including Kersall Cell in Salford, went to Elizabeth Byrom.

His library was donated to Chetham’s Library in 1870 by descendant Eleanora Atherton. His papers were later gathered by the John Rylands Research Institute and Library as the Thomson-Byrom collection, with donations from Rev. W. H. Thomson in 1961 and 1963, and from his niece Miss V. Keable in 1971.

Did You Know?

• Byrom was one of the tallest men in the kingdom, according to Bailey.
• His shorthand system was used by John and Charles Wesley, founders of Methodism, for coded diaries.
• Byrom coined the phrase "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" in an epigram about a dispute between composers Handel and Bononcini.