Thomas Gurney 

Thomas Gurney (1705-70) was a clockmaker by trade. He came to London from Bedfordshire in 1738 and soon began working as a shorthand writer at the Old Bailey.  A Baptist from birth, he attended the ministries of John Gill and George Whitefield in London, and was, like Gill, a ‘High Calvinist’, taking a great interest in Whitefield’s controversy with John Wesley, as evidenced by Gurney’s published poems from this period, such as Zeal for the Church: or, the Lamentation of the Cl---gy, Occasioned by the Reverend Mr. Whitefield’s Return to England (1741); Perseverance, a Poem.  In Reply to the Reverend Mr. Wesley’s Poetical Performance, falsely call’d, An Answer to All Which the Reverend Mr. Gill has Printed on the Final Perseverance of the Saints (1755). Among his other publications are Poems on Various Occasions (1759); and The Nature and Fitness of Things; or, the Perfections of God a Standing Rule to Try All Doctrines and Experience By: A Poem, Humbly Offered to the Consideration of Mr. John Wesley, and his Followers (1770). Thomas Gurney had three children who lived to maturity:  Martha (1733-1816), Thomas (1736-1775), and Joseph (1744-1815), with Martha and Joseph having significant careers in their own right (see their entries in this Index). Gurney was primarily known for his stenographic method, generally referred to as the Gurney System, which he first set forth in Brachygraphy, or Swift writing made easy to the meanest capacity (1750). Joseph and Martha Gurney jointly published eight editions of their father’s work between 1772 and 1803. Descendants of Thomas Gurney would serve as shorthand writers for Parliament and the Old Bailey until late in the nineteenth century.  For more on Thomas Gurney, see William Henry Gurney Salter, Some Particulars of the Lives of William Brodie Gurney and his Immediate Ancestors. Written Chiefly by Himself (London: Unwin, 1902), 15-33.