Byrom, John (1692–1763)

English poet and inventor of a shorthand system. He studied medicine in Montpelier, France, returning to teach an improved system of shorthand in Manchester and London. In 1740 he gave up teaching, and wrote verses and genial satire on topics of the day. His Diary and Remains was published 1854–57.

Byrom was born in Manchester and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow 1714. In the same year he contributed to the Spectator, as ‘John Shadow’, two papers on dreams, and also his first poem, a pastoral entitled ‘Colin and Phoebe’.

In 1729 he became a disciple of William Law and an ardent High-Church adherent and Jacobite.