I wonder if anyone can shed any light on this. I noticed on the side of an old farm building in Marsden (Hill in Lingards Wood, Marsden, to be exact) a plaque with a sign plus a date, 1754. The sign can be described as two capital 'E's back to back, or alternatively 3 horizontal lines with a vertical line through the middle. I assumed this was a form of someone'e initials, but then recently saw the same sign on some old wills at the Borthwick Institute, as someone's mark (i.e. substitute for a signature when they were illiterate). At first I got quite excited, as the first person I saw using it was one John Firth, who lived at Hill around the right time and whom I believe to have probably been an ancestor, which might then imply that he buillt the house. But then I saw the same used by other people with different surnames, so wondered if it was just an alternative for the more usual mark, a plain cross. Has anyone come across this before, and can they shed any light on the matter? Many thanks for any help Steve