Dickens shorthand sleuths offer hope for 1861 Canadian murder
First page from Begbie’s bench book (Credit: British Columbia Archive)
A Canadian legal academic has requested the help of a group of decoders and shorthand experts to solve the murder of a British Columbian shopkeeper more than 150 years ago.
Professor Martin Friedland is investigating the murder of Morris Price, a Jewish shopkeeper who was stabbed to death in the back room of his store in Cayoosh, British Columbia on 31 January 1861.
Three Indigenous men were arrested on suspicion of killing Morris. All three of the men were convicted of the crime and two of them were hanged.
Professor Friedland, who is Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Toronto, hopes that deciphering the Gurney shorthand used by Chief Justice Matthew Baillie Begbie, who was assigned to try the three men, could shed new light on the case.
Friedland reached out to the award-winning Dickens Code Project, whose trained decoders have deciphered a number of manuscripts written by Charles Dickens in Gurney shorthand. The project is led by Victorian literature expert, Dr Claire Wood (University of Leicester), as well as linguist and Dickens expert, Professor Hugo Bowles (University of Buckingham).
It is hoped that their network of decoders can apply their knowledge of Gurney shorthand to writings in a “bench book” used by Begbie during the trial.
Matthew Baillie Begbie was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the colony of British Columbia. He had studied Mathematics and Classics at the University of Cambridge, where he also learned Gurney shorthand.
He then trained as a lawyer in London where he worked as a law reporter in the 1850s before moving to British Columbia.
Begbie’s use of shorthand in the trial’s case notes is interspersed with lines written in longhand. Professor Friedland wishes to determine how the shorthand matches up with the longhand and whether important details have been omitted from or added to Begbie’s final report. Accurate transcription by the Dickens decoders will certainly help him.
The deciphering challenge is open until 2 May 2025. Anyone is welcome to take part and the ten best decoding attempts will be awarded a 1-year individual membership to the Charles Dickens Museum, London.
To find out more and take part in the challenge visit the Dickens Code Project website.