Someone who “made their mark” on a document” may or may not have been illiterate. There was a time where “making your mark” was equivalent to signing (as long as there were witnesses) and others may have been in a physical state where they could not actually sign. In older record books the “signature” (mark or not) is actually the clerk’s handwritten transcription of that signature or mark. Sometimes if the mark was not an “x” the clerk would try to replicate it as best he could.
In the illustration, it appears that the clerk is trying to reproduce an “R” made by Peter Rucker of Orange County, Virginia. 
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