The markup flags up abbreviations. I'm not quite clear on the distinctions between the different tags but it looks like "ex" is for expansions/excluded letters

The markup flags up abbreviations. I'm not quite clear on the distinctions between the different tags but it looks like "ex" is for expansions/excluded letters and "sl" is something to do with superscript letters, or thereabouts. See here for more on early modern "secretary hand" abbreviations: https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/ceres/ehoc/conventions.html#contractions https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/ceres/ehoc/conventions.html#co...