Children learning mathematics in the 18th and early 19 centuries kept a book in which they recorded solutions to problems assigned by a teacher or recorded in another cyphering book
Their learning progresssed from learning numbers and measures to addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and the “rule of three” (algebra).
William Mott (1780-1855) began his cyphering book in 1796, shortly after his family moved from Hunterdon Co. to the area in Randolph Township that became known as Mott Hollow.
Mary Willson (1789-1871) began her cyphering book a member of the Hardwick Preparative Meeting in Sussex Co., NJ. She moved to Randolph when she married Richard Brotherton in 1814.
Both cyphering books are in Morristown Library archives. They are on display during the month of September 2025 in the Morris County Public Library.
