City Readers Digital Historic Collections at the New York Society Library

William Fordyce Mavor (1 August 1758 – 29 December 1837) was a Scottish teacher, priest and compiler of educational books, many of which passed through numerous editions. He also invented a system of shorthand, which he explained in a treatise entitled ‘Universal Stenography’, first published in 1779. He is buried in the church at Woodstock, Oxfordshire, where there is a commemorative plaque.