I do love when I can find older handwriting samples that are neat and easy to read. One of the oldest samples I have found for my relatives is the entry in the Quaker historic record:
"A collection of the sufferings of the people called Quakers, for the testimony of a good conscience from the time of their being first distinguished by that name in the year 1650 to the time of the act commonly called the Act of toleration granted to Protestant dissenters in the first year of the reign of King William the Third and Queen Mary in the year 1689." Published in 1753.
How is that for a book title?
In it, I find my 10x great-grandparents William Clayton and Prudence (Lanckford) Clayton as witnesses to the arrest, torture, and subsequent death of James Larbee.
The entry reads:
James Larbee for going into the high steeple house of ye City of Chichester and speaking to the priest (Speed) concerning false doctrine delivered by him: was by the magistrates of the place committed to prison into the hands of a gaol keeper (Edward Lean) where he suffered near 5 months and died within a few days after he was set free. Several bruises that he received on his body remained till the day of his death. Witnesses Wm & Prudence Clayton.
Note: gaol is the old word for "jail."
Later, William was also arrested and held for 6 months in the Horsham Gaol. I guess he had enough, he packed up the wife and kids and migrated to Pennsylvania. There he rose to some prominence and was appointed to William Penn's government - he sat on the Provincial Council and also served as a Judge and a Supreme Court Justice.