The deaf blacksmith who married in 1576 – and the history of sign as a legal language

Medieval manuscript illustration of a man placing a ring on a woman's finger. British Library Royal MS 6 E VI, fol. 104/Wiki Commons

In February, Leicester Cathedral hosted a British Sign Language (BSL) service celebrating a deaf marriage that took place in the church 450 years ago, in 1576.

The groom was a deaf blacksmith from Leicester named Thomas Tilsey, who made his wedding vows in sign. It was so unusual that the clerk who witnessed the marriage recorded it in full in the parish records. Although the BBC reported that this marriage was “one of the earliest recorded examples of inclusive worship”, by 1576 deaf people had been marrying using sign language for almost 400 years.