Daily AncestorSigned with "his marke"
Will of Solomon Johnson, Johnston County, North Carolina, 1812 (State Archives of North Carolina)
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my hand and seale the day and year above written
Signed Sealled published and declared to be the last
will of the above Testater in Presents of us the witneſses
themark of [mark] Isom Bailey
Jeremiah X Parnal
F. Hollimon
his
Sollomon [mark] Johnson (Seal)
marke
Under Solomon's name are the words "his marke". What does that mean?
Correct
Not quite
A person who could not write (or was too ill to) made a mark, often an X, and the writer added "his mark" above and below it. The witness Jeremiah Parnal did the same with an X. In a will book the clerk copied the mark by hand, so its shape is not proof of the person's own hand, but it does tell you he signed by mark.
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