Family & Community History

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THE ARITHMETICKE PROJECT: A COLLABORATIVE

RESEARCH STUDY OF THE DIFFUSION OF HINDU-
ARABIC NUMERALS

PETER WARDLEY & PAULINE WHITE

To cite this article: PETER WARDLEY & PAULINE WHITE (2003) THE ARITHMETICKE PROJECT: A
COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH STUDY OF THE DIFFUSION OF HINDU-ARABIC NUMERALS, Family &
Community History, 6:1, 5-17

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 Family & Community History, Vol. 6/r, May 2003

THE ARITHMETICI(E PROJECT: A

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH STUDY OF
THE DIFFUSION OF HINDU-ARABIC
NUMERALS
By PETER WARDLEY AND PAULINE WHITE
Downloaded by [University Library Utrecht] at 21:12 16 March 2016

The Arithmeticke Project comprised a series of micro-studies by Family and Community

Historical Research Society members in England and Ireland designed to test the
findings of Peter Wardley in respect of the diffusion of the use of Hindu-Arabic in place
of Roman numerals, a spontaneous change on the part of individual scribes that
occurred without official direction. Inventories for the period I540-I700 were the major
primary source and attention was focussed on the monetary values recorded in the
valuation column of these documents. Reflecting other work on this issue, the findings
showed a significant transition in the numerals used in the valuation columns from the
late I6th century to the mid-I7th, but with notable exceptions. The investigation was
extended subsequently by examination of other documents, including wills, church-
wardens' accounts and estate papers. As the first such project undertaken by the Society,
it has provided a blueprint for future ventures.

In 1998, a group of ex-students and associates of the Open University's course DA301
(Studying family and community history: 19th and 20th centuries) came together to form
the Family and Community Historical Research Society (FACHRS). The society's found-
ing principles were to promote scholarly research into family and community history
through the forging of links between professionals and independent historians working
in communities across Britain. The first practical outcome of these aims was The
Arithmeticke Project, stimulated by a remark made by Peter Wardley at the FACHRS
conference of 2000 and undertaken with his guidance. It set out to investigate the local
chronology of the replacement of Roman by Hindu-Arabic numerals. This article
emerges out of the project and has two aims. First, it reports on the results of the
venture, discussing the methodology of a collaborative research project. Second, it pre-
sents the substantive results, assessing what light these shed on the issue of the diffusion
of Hindu-Arabic numerals in early modern England and Ireland.

Working together

Structured collaborative research between professional and independent historians is

developing a history of its own. As long ago as 1964 its potential was dramatically
revealed by the work of the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social
© 2003 Family and Community Historical Research Society
 6 PETER WARDLEY AND PAULINE WHITE

Structure, founded by Peter Laslett and Tony Wrigley 'to draw upon this massive body
of enthusiasts, of individual scholars, who, working in collaboration with the Cambridge
Group, could vastly multiply what one might describe as its scholarly productivity'
(Wrigley 1998: 29). Other initiatives followed at a wide variety of levels, but especially
in the local history classes organized by various university extra-mural departments and
Workers Education Association branches (e.g. Fieldhouse and Jennings 1978). Changes
in the funding of higher education severely restricted this type of collaboration after the
1970s. Nevertheless, impressive work re-emerged in the 1990S as a result of cooperation
between historians of migration at Lancaster University and the burgeoning family his-
tory societies of that decade (Pooley and Turnbull 1998). Meanwhile the Open University
stimulated a renewed series of initiatives that linked professional academics and indepen-
dent scholars. Among these were the Open Studies in Family and Community History
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(OSFACH) Infant Mortality Project and the OSFACH Millennium Project. Another
resulted from the work of the Women's Lives group in the City of Liverpool Community
College (Drake 1998: 23-24). The first FACHRS conference in 1999 featured papers on
similar themes.1 More recently, the continuing attempts to promote the academic stand-
ing of local history have been exemplified by the Kingston Local History Project, an
active co-operation between Kingston University and its local community (Tilley and
French 2001: 139-49), and summarized in a review of articles published in the The Local
Historian (formerly The Amateur Historian) as it approaches its 50th birthday (Crosby
2002: 146-155). These last two articles comment on the growth of the use of computers
as a tool in historical research, now extended by the medium of e-mail and the increased
accessibility of Internet resources.
Peter Wardley had developed this theme of the role of information technology in local
history research at the 2000 FACHRS Conference. Describing the usefulness of computer
graphics to illustrate diffusion processes, he referred to a published transcription of
probate inventories (dated from 1536 to 1742) from the parish of Clee, collated by an
adult education class in Cleethorpes (Ambler and Watkinson 1987). Whilst presenting
an opportunity for further analysis by computer, these transcriptions retained the integ-
rity of the original documents and incidentally (and unintended by the authors) demon-
strated the locally experienced transition in numerals from the end of the 16th century
and throughout the first half of the 17th century. This was no mere change in convention,
but a technological change in mathematical and numerical systems that occurred without
official edict. Roman numerals have no symbol for zero and their maintenance hampered
the development of algebraic and logarithmic mathematics. By adopting Hindu-Arabic
numerals a whole new mathematical paradigm was opening up for local communities.
However, the transition implied in the records of Clee appeared to indicate a later date
than many historians had assumed. It therefore prompted further similar research in
Bristol (Wardley 1993: 10). A later detailed study of probate inventories from West
Cornwall analysed, amongst other things, the use of numerals in the dates, preambles,
descriptive text, inventory columns and totals. The results were broadly similar to the
Clee and Bristol data. While 'perhaps not so tardy in west Cornwall as elsewhere', a
Hindu-Arabic numerical system was adopted in the generations from 1570 to 1630
(Cullum and Wardley 1994: 27).
When Peter Wardley asked, in passing, if any Society members had made similar
observations, several members at the conference saw an opportunity for a small-scale
 THE ARITHMETICKE PROJECT 7

collaborative research project. For many of those present, looking back to the central
direction and detailed planning that accompanied the introduction of decimal currency
in 1971 and forward to the promised debate and referendum over the Euro, an enquiry
into the apparently spontaneous diffusion of new numerals throughout local communities
in the early modern period was appealing. In this way the Arithmeticke Project was born.

The Hindu-Arabic numeral system2

The diffusion of the Hindu-Arabic numerical system was far from instantaneous. It was
500 years after its development in India, that Adelard of Bath, the 12th-century scholar,
played his highly influential role in promoting new mathematical ideas in the west of
England through his connections with the great monasteries of the Severn basin. His
works include a translation from the Arabic to Latin of the Elements of Euclid's
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Geometry and the Zij (a set of tables from which an observer can calculate the move-
ments of heavenly bodies) by al-Kwharizmi. Adelard may also have been responsible
for the translation of another important work by al-Kwharizmi, a treatise on arithmetical
procedures using a decimal place system and nine Hindu numerals combined with zero
(Cochrane, 1994: 62, 80). From this comes the terminology of 'Hindu-Arabic' numerals,
and the procedure, as a variant on his name, came to be known in medieval Latin as
algorismus, later anglicized as the 'algorism'. Its alternative spelling of 'algorithm' will
be familiar to those who have ventured into the world of programming, as a recursive
computational procedure. Yet, as a paper-based arithmetical system, algorismus was
slow to replace the abacus and the counting board. Adelard himself continued to use
Roman numerals in his work, although the geometry that he brought to English architec-
ture was manifest in the building of the new Wells Cathedral at the end of the 12th
century. Interestingly, the masons used Hindu-Arabic numerals to identify sculptured
figures during the 13th century, but Roman numerals were used in the cathedral accounts
for a further 400 years (Cochrane 1994: 81).
Interest in the subject of historical numbering systems emerged in the 20th century
(Hill: 1915, Jenkinson: 1926, Thomas: 1987). Thomas's classic study of numeracy in
early modern England described how the inadequacies of the Roman system were
revealed by the expansion of trade, and how Hindu-Arabic numerals became established
in most forms of account keeping during a transitional period between the mid-16th
and mid-17th centuries. There do not appear to be any studies encompassing Scotland,
Wales and Ireland and little attention has been paid to the geographical distribution and
utilization of the new system by and within local societies. By contrast, its role within
the history of mathematics has been amply recorded (Fauvel and Gray 1987: 276-317;
Stedall 2001: 73-122).
The Arithmeticke Project thus emerged with two aims. The first was to produce a
series of micro-studies as a pilot collaborative project for the FACHRS and the second
to investigate how and when the representation of number changed in various communi-
ties, using probate inventories as the major source.

Sources and methodology

The advantage of using probate inventories in this study was their consistent format
and production over a long time period, thus providing an opportunity for comparative
 8 PETER WARDLEY AND PAULINE WHITE

study. In most of England and Wales, the right of the church to prove wills, and grant
administration of a deceased's estate, was gradually acquired in the Middle Ages. This
survived until surrendered to secular authority in 1858. The church courts were respon-
sible for the supervision of the disposal of the personal estate of the deceased (moveable
goods, credits and leasehold property, as originally expressed in an earlier testament).
The issues of real estate (comprising freehold and copyhold land and buildings, beque-
athed in the last will) were subject to the manorial courts and common law. By the 16th
century, these bequests had usually been combined into one document as the 'last will
and testament'. An act of 1529 gave the personal representative of the deceased some
choice of appraisers of the estate from those with a personal interest in it as creditors,
legatees, or next of kin. Failing that, he was to choose 'two honest men'. Goods were
valued according to their second-hand or selling price (Arkell et al. 2000: 3-33).
Two points are worthy of mention regarding the social spectrum represented by the
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inventories and those who wrote them. The 1529 Act 'appears to have expected an
inventory for a personal estate, testate or intestate, whatever its value, and only dis-
tinguished between estates in the matter of charges' (Arkell et al. 2000: 26). Thus the
inventories do not represent only the wealthy members of the community, as witnessed
by the minimum values - as little as £1 or £2 - recorded in most of the project reports.
Secondly, the documents 'were not, in rural areas, drawn up by professional scribes or
appraisers, but diverse and "amateur" members of the local community, and thus rep-
resent the experience of a wider community than that of the professional bureaucrat'
(Cullum and Wardley 1994: 9).
The volunteer researchers, after registering with the project, were supplied with
detailed project notes and asked to locate probate inventories for the period 1540 to
1700. Once located, the totals in the valuation columns were recorded, ignoring numbers
in the text, dates and quantities of objects. A standard data sheet in spreadsheet format
was used to record the document reference, name of the deceased, gender, date, parish,
value of inventory and decimal equivalent of the value. Furthermore, the researchers
were then asked to classify the number systems used in the valuation columns according
to the following eight-point taxonomy devised by Wardley (1993).

1. Roman numerals throughout;

2. Roman numerals throughout, except for Hindu-Arabic totals;
3. Hindu-Arabic numerals throughout;
4- Hindu-Arabic numerals throughout, except for Roman totals;
5. Mixed (i.e. a sprinkling of Hindu-Arabic and Roman numerals through the prices
of items);
6. Text (i.e. a written listing, including written prices in words such as 'foower
shillings', etc.);
7. Rough listings unable to be shoe-horned into 1-6 above;
8. Other - which would be accompanied by a note explaining what was so unusual
that the above categories 1-7 were inadequate to represent the document.

This classification number was then added to the data sheet. Once their research was
completed project members were invited to submit a report, describing the sources and
methods used and conclusions drawn. These were added to the Project website.
 THE ARITHMETICKE PROJECT 9

The project team were both encouraged and guided by a regular newsletter entitled
' ... and other small lumbor', which provided an opportunity to air problems and share
incidental findings (these can be seen on the Arithmeticke Project website). This title,
derived from the catchall phrase often employed by weary appraisers to encapsulate the
last few possessions of the deceased, engendered some enquiries as to what the
Arithmeticke Project had to do with backache. In all, thirteen researchers registered for
the project and had submitted reports or provided information by the autumn of 2001.
Most were volunteers, but some had 'taken the King's shilling' in response to pleas for
help in under-represented areas. All were asked, where possible, to note some social
detail together with the quantitative data. Of the reports, eight were based on the values
recorded in probate inventories, analysed in terms of the above taxonomy. These rep-
resented Northumberland and Nev/castle, south Westmorland, Dronfield in Derbyshire,
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Yoxall in Staffordshire, the county of Norfolk, Warminster in Wiltshire, Bermondsey

and Rotherhithe in Surrey, and Maidstone, Loose and Aldington in Kent. In the event,
five researchers were unable to locate sufficient inventories and instead surveyed other
contemporary documents. We return to these below.

Findings from the probate inventories

Table I summarizes the report data from the probate inventory studies. It shows the dates
at which inventories with values classified as 2, 3, 4 and 5 in this taxonomy first appeared
in each set of data, and the period of the main transition in the numbering method.
A difficulty with these data is the marked variability in the survival rate for probate
documents. Not all areas afforded sufficient inventories for the designated study period
1540-1700, and the detailed reports from the volunteers reveal the idiosyncrasies of
researchers working alone with regard to the documents selected. There is an element
of subjectivity also in the judgement of the main period of transition. Nevertheless, given
these major caveats, the majority of the projects show a common and distinct transitional
period in the use of numerals from around 1590 to 1650, supporting the hypothesis
generated by previous studies that this transition occurred in England in the late 16th
to mid-17th centuries. Within that time span, there was perhaps a variable 20- to 30-year
period of main transition, possibly generational. These observations seem remarkably
consistent, despite differences in the numbers of documents analysed, the size of the
study areas and their geographical location.
The clear exception is the report based on probate inventories from parishes bordering
the Thames, mostly Bermondsey and Rotherhithe, where the earliest surviving records
were from a very late date in the period. Some of these were for men who died at sea
and some for more conventional parishioners. But here, the majority of scribes in both
categories still used Roman numerals at the end of the 17th century. A typical example
may be found in the inventory for one Thomas Uffton, who died in 1695 on board the
HMS Newcastle. It consists mostly of his wages of £25 4S., due for nineteen months at
sea. His wife, Elizabeth was left to account for his sea chest; his clothes had already
sold for £1 5S. (see Bermondsey and Rotherhithe Report on Arithmeticke Project Website
for original inventory and transcript). Coincidentally, this pattern of late change was
also a feature of inventories in the town of Newcastle and one can only speculate that
 10 PETER WARDLEY AND PAULINE WHITE

TABLEI: The diffusion of Hindu-Arabic numerals in specific localities as represented by usage in

valuation columns of probate inventories r540-r700

Area Period Earliest Earliest Earliest Main transition period Number of

Class 2 Class 3 Class documents
4 or 5

Northumberland and r548- r598 r6r2 r609 r620-50 148

Newcastle r699
South Westmorland r608- r608 r608 r608 r627-40 575
8r
Dronfield, Derbys r535- r633 Doubtful r6rr r639 to end of data r82
r647 data
Yoxall, Staffs r542- r6ro r626 r6r3 r626-50 273
r700
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Norfolk r56r- r584 r59r r592 1620-50 775

r686
Warminster, Wilts 156r- r607 r625 16r8 r630-50 109
r69r
Bermondsey and r66r- none r662 none Roman numerals still roo
Rotherhithe 99 in majority 1699
Maidstone, Loose and r607- r6r2 r6ro r609 r637-r650 based on 260
Aldington, Kent 67 limited data for r620S
and r630s

Classes 2 to 5 of the taxonomy adopted were most indicative of the gradual absorption of Hindu-
Arabic numerals:
Class 2 = inventory values column in Roman numerals but with Hindu-Arabic totals
Class 3 = inventory values column in Hindu-Arabic throughout
Class 4 = inventory values column in Hindu-Arabic but with Roman totals
Class 5 = inventory values column having mixed use of Roman and Hindu-Arabic in items

Source: Probate inventories.

there may be shared cultural factors which might explain this east coast phenomenon,
perhaps connected to the fact that Bermondsey was the receiving port for the Newcastle
sea-coal required for the area's leather tanning, soap-making and lime-burning industries.
In contrast, the earliest date at which an inventory was found to contain values
completely in Hindu-Arabic was 1591. This was for the goods and chattels of Edmonte
Oversto, of Upwell, Norfolk (see Figure I). Whilst some distance from the north Norfolk
coast, Upwell was linked to it by the fenland navigation system. There is no indication
of the identity of the scribe, but his command of the new system is almost complete,
though Roman numerals creep in to the quantity descriptions. Whilst the year date is
written as '1591', the similar figure for the quantity of hemp that forms the most valuable
item is documented as '15 hondarde' (possibly for 'hundredweight') and evidence that
the deceased reckoned with counters can probably be deduced from his 'lettell Rownde
cownter' (see Norfolk Report on Arithmeticke Project Website for transcript).

Other sources

As mentioned above, another research strand focussed upon documents of the period
1540 to 1700 other than probate inventories, in areas where these latter were not
 THE ARITHMETICKE PROJECT II
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FIGURE1 Probate Inventory of Edmonte Oversto of Upwell, Norfolk. Source: Norfolk Record
Office, MF/RO 483/1 INV8.180. Reproduced with the permission of the Norfolk Record Office.
 12 PETER WARDLEY AND PAULINE WHITE

available. The participants in this second front produced six reports: one an analysis of
wills, two of churchwardens' accounts, two from various documents held in Belfast and
Dublin and one a study of university college accounts. These show a wide variety of
practices and an over-lapping process of change, depending on context, place and
purpose.
One perspective came from a study of the financial and accounting records of various
colleges of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, made possible by several college archi-
vists who provided information from their records (these are detailed on the project
website). The transitional period was not dissimilar from the more general pattern,
despite Hindu-Arabic numerals having first appeared in the 14th century in the account
rolls of the oldest college. The bursars responsible represented a broad corpus, drawn
annually from the college fellows. The process of diffusion described by the Oxford and
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Cambridge college archivists followed the pattern established in the probate inven-
tories - i.e. Hindu-Arabic numerals appeared in year dates, sub-totals and item descrip-
tions long before their use in valuation columns. The timing of the general changeover,
from 1590 to 1648, mirrors the diffusion shown in several of the probate inventory
studies, and supports a comment from one archivist that the results reflect 'changing
times' and lack specific influences. Certainly, these results show a remarkable concur-
rence between college scholars, farmers in the Midlands and north of England, tradesmen
and artisans who served as churchwardens in the City of London and farmers and
fishermen in Lincolnshire.
A facsimile of the oldest extant record of Trinity College, Dublin (Mahaffy 1904)
showed Hindu-Arabic numerals used fully in the accounts for the third quarter of 1607.
Amongst other details of Trinity College life, the lists in this source of the punishments
meted out to wrongdoers would indicate that students' habits change little over the
years. Walter Galway, 'for his resort to Alehouses and unwisely spending his money
[was] corrected sharply wth ye rod and enjoyed a public acknowledgement of his faults.
Feb 19. 1613' (Mahaffy 1904). Similarly, Hindu-Arabic numerals began to appear in the
totals of the Treasurer's Accounts for the City of Dublin from 16°5. Echoing the sugges-
tion of a relatively early change over to Hindu-Arabic numerals in Ireland, an analysis
of some fifty manuscripts in Northern Ireland, covering a period from 1606 to 1704,
found no evidence of the use of Roman numerals. Here the change to Hindu-Arabic
appeared to have been accomplished before 1606. However, a further check on a typed
transcript of documents dating from 1569 did reveal that some Roman numerals were
still in use between 1593 and 1651 in Carrickfergus Council (Records of Carrigfergus).
The accounts of the churchwardens of Chiswick, Surrey confirmed the dominant
pattern of diffusion in the first half of the 17th century. Another study took the form
of a close scrutiny of similar churchwardens' accounts from seven parishes in the City
of London, chosen at random, and revealed absorption of the new numerals occurring
largely from 1590 to 1620, though making a first appearance as early as 1475. The first
full presentation of accounts in Hindu-Arabic occurred in 1596. Yet, the accounts of St
Michael Cornhill, the most consistent of those examined, showed a comprehensive
change only in 1683, and no major examples were found of the hybridity identified in
the other parishes. The accounts for this parish are, as the report says, 'very detailed
and beautifully written and, conceivably, the late date for the changeover from Roman
 THE ARITHMETICKE PROJECT

is indicative of a pride in doing well that which was customary' (City of London report,
Arithmeticke Project website).
A significant tension was noted between convention (as in the number system
employed for display) and calculation as a mental process. This came in evidence of
arithmetic calculations recorded using Hindu-Arabic numerals outside the main body
of the text, even when all elements of the text itself were in Roman. The earliest date
for this was 1475, 'raising issues concerning the social meaning of different number
systems in this period, the likelihood of binumeracy on the part of some of those who
wrote the accounts and their deployment of Roman and Hindu-Arabic numerical
representation for different purposes' (City of London Report, Arithmeticke Project
website).
A study of the representation of number in wills from three townships in the old West
Riding of Yorkshire, showed that Hindu-Arabic numerals were not used significantly
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until the last quarter of the 17th century. Whilst not directly comparable with the probate
inventory studies, this inland, agricultural area does seem to show more resistance to
change when compared with the similarly located rural parishes of Dronfield in
Derbyshire and Yoxall in Staffordshire. This report also contained details of numerical
representation from varying sources within one context - the records of the Fairfax
family's Denton Hall estate. The third Lord Fairfax, creator of the New Model Army
and subsequently Lord General of the Parliamentary forces, was born and baptized at
Denton, his grandfather's home, in 1612. The Survey Book of Denton comprises docu-
ments compiled by, or on behalf of, Sir Thomas (later the first Lord) Fairfax, to aid the
transfer and orderly disposition of household goods required to furnish his splendid new
hall, and to assist him in the efficient administration of the estate. In February 1595, a
domestic inventory was taken of hundreds of household goods at Denton Hall and here
the scribe recorded mostly the vernacular language of 'number text' as used for quantity,
or number of items. However, in the detailed survey of all the closes and grounds which
took place the following year, all land measurements demanding surveying techniques
to derive acres, roods and perches, were recorded in Hindu-Arabic numerals. In 1631,
thirty-six years later, the estate clerk stuck to Roman for computed monetary values of
rents for gaits (grazing land) and sum totals. Like the evidence from the City of London
his marginalia, Hindu-Arabic sub-totals and totals, indicate that an abstract use of
number was employed for the calculation, but perhaps the same feeling that Roman
was the 'proper' way apparently held sway at St Michael Cornhill, ensuring that the
resulting entry of monetary values remained as before.

Project review

So, how can the strengths and weaknesses of the project be assessed? Its achievements
depended heavily on the investment of individual time and effort and this was provided
in abundance by the project researchers. The project broke new ground in that it was
an attempt to bring together researchers located in widely scattered settings. In doing
this, it promised to move beyond more traditional geographically based community
projects to a non-geographically bounded project that was, moreover, focused on a
specific theme as opposed to a distinct place. Clearly, IT developments, in particular
 PETER WARDLEY AND PAULINE WHITE
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FIGURE 2 Detail of rents for the Heigh Parke from the Denton Geyste r631. (Note 'text messaging'
in the last but one line - 'Allexander Hemesley 4 twoe gates allowed he is to pay iiijs viijd'.) Source:
John Goodchild Collection. Reproduced by courtesy of John Goodchild.

e-mail, make this more feasible. But, in this case, the project remained open to researchers
who were not online. The value of their contributions and the aim of making the project
as open as possible outweighed the lack of access to computer technology or skills.
Nevertheless, while not essential to such projects, computer technology and relevant IT
skills are important for facilitating their success.
While IT helps the coordination of data collection in such projects, the existence of
the worldwide web allows the relatively inexpensive dissemination of results. Here again,
web design skills are an ingredient in guaranteeing success. In the Arithmeticke Project
such skills were learnt as the project proceeded, thus indicating the educational value
of such efforts. With the agreement of the participants, it was decided to set up a website
for the project in order to share the findings. This includes images of specific examples
for illustrative purposes. However, obtaining permission to reproduce documents proved
to be a complex and convoluted exercise, especially when images are taken from micro-
film while the originals and the associated reproductive rights are held elsewhere. Future
projects would be well advised to seek written permission for reproduction in a publi-
cation, or on an Internet website, at the earliest possible opportunity and, if possible,
at the time of research.
 THE ARITHMETICKE PROJECT 15

In the absence of either comprehensive electronic communication or face-to-face

meetings, the provision of detailed written advice is essential for aiding consistency in
recording and reporting, though this was not felt to be a major problem on this project.
Perhaps, more crucially, many reports commented on the help, interest, advice and
support of archivists and curators in the depositories, an important facilitator of such
research. For example, some sympathetic archivists waived the usual limit on the number
of original documents provided at anyone time, a rule that can be very frustrating for
those engaged in aggregate research. The growing use of e-mail by such staff was also
a helpful factor and often some key pieces of information were willingly provided
this way.3
Where original inventories were not available, some researchers turned to collections
of transcripts. The issue of source integrity was the major caveat that arose from this.
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The visual check against the hand of one scribe, which could bias the result, was lost
and it became obvious there was a need to consider and question the original purpose
for which these transcripts were created. Without an interest in the use of numerals, it
can be second nature to convert Roman to Hindu-Arabic in hand-written copies, which
are subject to further possible corruption when the data are typed. Imagine the chagrin
of one member of the group for whom this was a personal reality, after many years of
conscientiously recording local wills onto tape and transcribing them at home. To her
great credit, she was prepared to revisit the records and amend the transcripts for
the project.

Conclusion

The Arithmeticke Project has now ended. As a short-term testing ground, did it achieve
its twin aims of extending current knowledge of the topic and demonstrating the potential
of collaboration? The results confirm Peter Wardley's hypothesis that the major change
in numbering systems occurred between 1540 and 1700, in particular from the late 16th
to mid-17th centuries. It is generally accepted that Hindu-Arabic numerals came rela-
tively late to England - 'it was only between the mid-16th and mid-17th centuries that
they established themselves side by side with Roman letters in the same document, with
Roman the language of record and grand totals, and Arabic that of calculation' (Thomas
1987: 120-22). Nonetheless, whilst modestly supporting this assertion, the project hints
that the topic is more complex than such a general statement might indicate. There were
certainly exceptions to this generalization and our study implies considerable geographi-
cal variations that require further more detailed comparative study. Many instances of
grand totals in Hindu-Arabic were recorded for example, and the new numerals had
still not established themselves in the Bermondsey and Rotherhithe inventories, nor in
some from Newcastle, as late as 1699.
And what of Scotland, Wales and Ireland? The findings of our Belfast reporter indicate
that Ireland may have been in advance of England, but we have no evidence from
Scotland or Wales. The research also highlights the differing meanings of number sys-
tems, as the hierarchical examples from Denton and the annotations resulting from the
mental processes of the City of London churchwardens demonstrate. In addition, more
research is needed on the influences and mechanics of the diffusion process. English
 16 PETER WARDLEY AND PAULINE WHITE

coins, for example, significantly first bore the Hindu-Arabic numerals, as 'Henric 8',
during the second coinage of 1526-44, at the start of the period of interest, though
Roman numerals subsequently became conventional.
As for the possibilities of co-operation, co-ordination and collaboration, the
Arithmeticke Project did prove that a dispersed network of like-minded independent
researchers is able to harness its own resources, engender help from others and contribute
to the work of the professional historian. It paved the way for successive, larger ventures.
Having adopted the blueprint, the Swing Project was initiated in 2000. This involved
some thirty-three researchers across counties in England, the Scottish Borders and South
Wales contributing recorded events from the era of protest in 1829-32 in order to create
a searchable database. A further project to enquire into 19th-century pauper emigration
began in 2002, giving an opportunity to independent historians to research not only
surviving records in official depositories but also to trawl those treasures held in local
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museums and private hands. But such projects are not just an opportunity for local
historians to enjoy themselves in the archives. They are part of a learning curve for both
'professional' guides and willing local researchers. Continuing reflection is required on
the lessons of these projects and on their implications for the design and implementation
of future projects. What the FACHRS experience suggests is a new possibility of practical
work that can bring together a network of people widely separated by distance. In turn,
this allows historical generalizations to be tested in a wide variety of localities simul-
taneously, thus building in the comparative approach from the very earliest stages of
the research.

The members of the project group were Zena Chevassut, Mary Creaser, Stella Evans, Shirley Fisher, Peter Hammond,
Mona Hearn, Elma Hill, Clive Leivers, Paul Newton Taylor, Robert Ruegg, Martin White, Pauline White and Jean
Wright. The group would like to record its thanks to Peter Wardley and the University of the West of England for
their help and support, without which this venture would not have been possible, and to the three referees who
commented on an earlier version of this article. The detailed reports produced, and some aspects of the associated
earlier research, may be seen on the Arithmeticke Project website (hosted by the FACHRS website: www.fachrs.com).

1 The conference, entitled '\XTorking Together', was held at the Open University on 24 April 1999. Reports of the
papers can been seen in Family and Community History, 2: 156-58.
2 'Hindu-Arabic' is preferred over 'Arabic' as a more accurate and useful description for two reasons: first, it places
primacy on the region where this system of numerical representations had its origins, the Indian sub-continent; and
second, it draws attention to the difference between the numerals currently used in Arabic countries and those
adopted by Europeans after the introduction of various adaptations. The latter, of course, has become the inter-
nationally accepted system of numerical representation (Wardley 1993: 14).
3 For example, see the project website for information on coins, contributed by Dr B. J. Cook, Curator of Medieval
and Early Modern Coinage, British Museum.

References

PRIMARY SOURCES

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of Connor & Rector of the Parish of Carrickfergus in the year I785' (typed copies by John Logan
1982). PRONI reference T.7071r
Mahaffy, J. P. (ed.) The Particular Book of Trinity College, Dublin, I598-I64I, London: T. Fisher
Unwin.
 THE ARITHMETICKE PROJECT 17

SECONDARYSOURCES

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Biographical note
Peter Wardley is Principal Lecturer in Nlodern Economic and Business History at the University of the
West of England. A long-term advocate of the potentialities of historical computing, conspicuously as
Information Technology editor for the Economic History Review and editor of the Bristol Historical
Resource CD (2000: Bristol), his other major research interest is the emergence and consolidation of
big business. Address: School of History, University of the West of England, Coldharbour Lane,
Frenchay, Bristol BSI6 IQY, UK. E-mail: [email protected]

Pauline White is a founder member of the FACHRS and the Arithmeticke Project Co-ordinator. She
is also co-author of Warminster in the Twentieth Century, a millennium publication for the Warminster
History Society. Address: 58a Weymouth Street, Warminster, Wiltshire BAI2 9NT, UK. E-mail:
pauline. [email protected]