Timothy Bright

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Timothy Bright

1551?-1615

English physician and cleric who is credited with developing the first modern shorthand system, which he initially used to transcribe an epistle of St. Paul. Bright's characters were arranged in 18 vertical rows, similar to the method of Chinese. After Queen Elizabeth granted him a patent for his method in 1588, Bright published a short work explaining his "charactery" as the art of short, swift, and secret writing.