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William Secord signatures

1) Will, dated Oct. 31, 1843 - (See transcription.)

The copy of William's will that I have is a transcription of the original, and as such it does not have original signatures on it. However, it does indicate that he signed it with an X. This does not prove that William was unable to sign his name, as he was likely too old or infirm to sign at that point.

2) Loyalist claim documents, 1780s - (See transcriptions: first, second, and third.)

I don't see any original signature or X mark made by William Secord on any of his various Loyalist documents from the late 1780s. One document has "signatures" of William and Elias Secord but it is evident that it is a transcription of the original as the wax seals next to the names have been drawn on and the handwriting for both "signatures" is the same:

3) Land petitions

William is mentioned in a petition of James Gerow dated 1785, but only James signed it. (See image.)

William was also one of many participants in a petition headed by John Golding in 1785. Here are some of the names on that petition:

It appears that the first four may all be in the same hand, and the remaining names in another hand. There is no guarantee that any of this was written by William. However, there is a second set of names with it, and these appear to be genuine signatures. Here are some of them:

The signature of James Gerow here matches that on the 1785 petition mentioned above. (See image.)

William's 1786 petition concerning the Spry Grant is in his name only, and as such has only one signature on it. Unfortunately, I only have a poor copy of it:

In 1810, William Secord and William Secord Junior both participated in a petition with a group of others including some Frosts, but only William Frost Junior and William Secord Junior signed it.

William Secord is only mentioned in the petition of Daniel Campbell, dated 1813, and there is no signature for him. The same is true for the petition of William Miller, also dated 1813.

These are the only samples of William Secord's signature that I have been able to find, and as indicated above, the fourth and fifth images are the ones most likely to be in his actual hand. The last one is a very flowery version and clearly different from the one above it. I suspect it is not William's as I have seen a similarly fancy signature from the same era (on the 1788 petition of John Seacord, in fact) and it does not even come close to another sample of John's signature. My guess is that the fourth image down from the top is most likely to contain William's real signature.

Going back to the Loyalist claim documents, one set is in the hand of someone who is apparently not accustomed to writing regularly. (See transcription - page 586.) Here is a sample of it:

For comparison purposes, here are the two written William Secords, one from the fourth image down from the top, and the other from the above image:

It seems possible that they are in the same hand. My guess is that these were both written by William Secord.