We have been contacted by Professor Martin Friedland, Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Toronto, with a request for help in deciphering some case notes written in Gurney shorthand. He is researching a case of murder in British Columbia in 1861, using the judge’s notes as source material.
Background to the case
On 31 January 1861, Morris Price, a Jewish shopkeeper, was stabbed to death in the back room of his store in Cayoosh, British Columbia. Three Indigenous men were arrested on suspicion of killing Morris. All three were convicted and two were hanged. Professor Friedland hopes that deciphering the bench book of Matthew Baillie Begbie, who was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the colony of British Columbia and assigned to try the three men, could shed new light on the case.
Begbie had studied Mathematics and Classics at Cambridge, where he also learned Gurney shorthand – the same system that Dickens used. Begbie then trained as a lawyer in London where he worked as a law reporter in the 1850s before moving to British Columbia. You can find some additional information about Chief Justice Begbie’s life and work here.
The task
To complete the challenge, please do the following:
- Download and read Begbie’s Full Report on the case very carefully. There is no shorthand in this file but you need the information in the Full Report to help you understand the shorthand in the Case Notes.
- Download and read Begbie’s Case Notes file. These are the notes that Begbie made during the trial. They contain the shorthand that we want you to transcribe. The shorthand was taken down during the trial from key witnesses Henry Featherstone, the surgeon who examined Price’s corpse, and John Robert Flynn, the constable who investigated the crime in the days after the murder.
- Transcribe the shorthand in the Case Notes on the Entry Form and then complete the second task. Use the information in the Full Report to help you. For help with transcription, please use the material on our Resources page, particularly our ‘Beginners Guide to Gurney’s Brachygraphy‘.
Ten prizes: Charles Dickens Museum membership
Thanks to the generosity of Professor Friedland and an anonymous donor, in collaboration with the Charles Dickens Museum, London, we are delighted to be able to offer a 1-year individual membership to the Charles Dickens Museum for the ten best decoding attempts.
A panel of judges will examine the submissions and decide the ten prize winners. The results and final transcription will be posted on this website on 31 July 2025.
Eligibility
- The competition is public and open to participants from any country. Any participants under 18 must seek the permission of a parent or guardian.
- Participants can use whatever method they wish to decipher the shorthand.
- Submissions must be in English.
- By entering, participants agree that their solutions can be placed under a Creative Commons license and shared on the Dickens Code website; participants can remain anonymous or choose a pseudonym if they wish.
Entry form
Please download the Entry Form, which is provided below in a .docx and .pdf format for your convenience.
Write your transcriptions for lines 1-21 on the lines under the shorthand, complete the second task, sign and date your entry, and send it to us before midnight (British Summer Time) 2 May 2025. Further instructions and contact details are provided in the entry form.