Background
William Mott (1780-1855) and Mary Willson (1789-1871) grew up in northern New Jersey in the decades following the US War for Independence. Their families were Quakers and members of the Hardwick-Mendham (today Randolph) Monthly Meeting.
The cyphering books William and Mary kept were essentially workbooks. Once they learned their numbers, students used the books to work their way through a series of problems, starting with simple addition and then subtraction, multiplication, division, reduction and the “rule of three” or algebra.
For more information and a few simple examples of the in the cyphering books, CLICK HERE. For answers to the more Challenging Problems, ClICK HERE.
