X is for ‘X mark’

Getting on the home stretch with this challenge now. But had to get creative with the letter ‘X’, as I don’t have anyone with an X anywhere in their name or a location with X in it. So the topic for my X post is ‘X mark’.

I remember when I first came across the term his/her ‘X’ mark on a document and still being a novice family history researcher at the time I wasn’t quite sure what it meant. Growing up in the modern world, I have always prided myself on my ability to read and write proficiently but I was also aware that other people didn’t have the same opportunities as me, even as recent as my own parents. As such, I knew that school hadn’t been as important in days gone by as it is now, but I don’t think I every really understood it in a concrete way until I started seeing documents from multiple ancestors containing an ‘X’ mark in place of a signature.

So, what did school look like for my ancestors in early Australia? In the very early days of the colony, it was mainly the middle and upper classes that received a comprehensive education. As the colony grew, the demand for grammar schools such as existed in England arose and these institutions are established. But these were really just for people of a certain class, and those who could afford to pay the tuition fees. By the 1830s, the higher ups in society were coming to the realisation that a lot of crime resulted form ignorance and ignorance resulted from a lack of education. Thus, the government decided to set up schools that would educated children in the three “R’s” and how to be moral citizens in order to create an orderly and functional society.

However, school wasn’t compulsory until the 1870s and even then it was very hard to enforce. This resulted in a large amount of the population, particularly those who lived in rural areas, being completely unschooled and unable to even sign their name.

As most of my ancestors lived in rural area of Australia, and some fo them moved every year or so, this explains why they spent their entire life being functionally illiterate. This left them no choice than to make their ‘X’ mark on official documents such as birth and marriage certificates. A project I’ve been working on lately for my job has also brought this even more to the forefront of my mind lately. The project is transcribing hard copies of local historic death and marriage registers, and in this process I have seen so many ‘X’ marks.