When William first posted this I nearly split laughing

[Russell Lynn Drysdale]

When William first posted the above image I nearly split laughing ,( having known there were 40 plus Drysdale spelling variants recorded ) to me good common sense  would dictate that men with a formal education are least likely to end up as bounty hunter types  it would seem foolish to even suggest something as farfetched as some head hunter holding a knife to your throat asking you to spell your  surname

However In this 1958 printing , the substance varies with the addition of  a very imaginative  passage as to the changing of the spelling of the surname Dryfesdale some how aided in the Douglas brothers continued survival  ,as well as unrelated poetry.

               

Spelling was still in the works , all around Scotland  

example

The Lord's Prayer in Middle Scots                M. Nisbet c. 1520               LORD'S PRAYER                 Our fader that art in heuenis,                 hallewit be thi name.                 Thi kingdom cum to.                  Thi wil be done in erde, as in heuen.                  Gefe to vs this day our breid ouer vthir substance.                  And forgif to vs our dettis,                  as we forgef to our dettouris.                   And leid vs nocht into temptatioun,                   bot deliuer vs fra euile.                   Amen.

 

On the whole Middle Scots scribes never managed to establish a single standardized spelling for every word, but operated a system of free variation based on a number of spelling variants.

Some scribes used their own variants, but this was relatively rare. The least variation occurred in the later 16th century as printers moved towards fixed spellings. This ended in the 17th century when printers began to adopt imported English conventions. Middle Scots used a number of now obsolete letters and letter combinations:
A ligature of long s and short s, similar to German ß, is sometimes used for s.     

This example came from the US Constitution .

.......................
The inflection -ys, -is was realised /ɪz/ after sibilate and affricate consonants and other voiced consonants, and /ɪs/ after other voiceless consonants, later contracted to /z/ and /s/ as in Modern Scots -s. The spelling -ys or -is also occurred in other words .......  Like Drysdale              

This example or rather the variance from it was noted  by Howell Pryse in 1665 in the

Virginia Colonial Abstracts , Volume 3 

page 230 , where it states 

''  Howell Pryse hath proved right by testimony produced to 750 acres of Land for the importacon [importation] of Edmond Vickery , James King , Richd Newman , Tho. Morris , William Cooper , Willm Reynolds , James Drysdale............... Drysdale , for instance, with the undignified pronunciation of ''Drizzle'' ....... B.F.''