6. John Speed 1610

John Speed (1552-1629) was born at Farndon in Cheshire and followed his father’s trade as a tailor. By 1582 he had moved to London with his wife (Susanna who bore him twelve sons and six daughters) and been made a Freeman of the Merchant Tailors Company (1580). He was a keen amateur historian and map maker, producing maps for the Merchant Tailors in 1598. He became a member of the Society of Antiquaries where it is likely that he came into contact with the leading historians of the day such as Sir Robert Cotton, William Camden, whose text he had read, and perhaps even Christopher Saxton. His interests came to the notice of Sir Fulke Greville, who made him an allowance so that he should be free to write an history of England and, by courtesy of Queen Elizabeth, worked from a room in the Custom House.

A good historian he was a great gatherer of information: I have put my sickle into other men’s corns. Most of his map material was copied from Saxton, however, John Norden (1548-1626) and William Smith (c.1550-1618) had produced maps of some counties and Gerard Mercator maps of the regions. Yet Speed must have travelled extensively, for his maps go well beyond those of his predecessors. By including the hundreds, the inset town plans and heraldic devices of his maps and modifying the Camden text in the atlas he assured its success and lasting appeal. The first maps engraved for the atlas were printed in 1605-06 (although most of the dated maps show 1610) and were on sale between then and 1610-11, when the Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine and the History, which often accompanied it, was issued in full. Speed’s drafts were taken to Amsterdam, engraved by Jodocus Hondius, then taken back to London for printing. The Devon map was copied directly from Saxton and the map of Exeter is taken from Braun and Hogenberg’s engraving (1587) of a plan by John Hooker. The Cornish boundary has a minor error: Mount Edgcombe, shown in Devon on the Cornwall map, is situated in Cornwall on the Devon map; a mistake copied by both Jan Jansson and Joan Blaeu, and hence by all who derived their maps from these sources.¹

In 1627, just before he died, Speed published A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World (title copied from Ortelius) which, combined with the 1627 edition of the Theatre, became the first World Atlas produced by an Englishman.

Speed’s publishers, John Sudbury (d.1621) and his nephew George Humble (d.1640), received a 21-year privilege in 1608 and exploited it to the full issuing 12 editions of the work. George Humble also obtained the van den Keere plates (4) and published these miniature maps to coincide with issues of Speed’s large atlas, hence the name Miniature Speeds. William Garrett bought the plates in 1659 and immediately sold them to Roger Rea. By 1675 Thomas Bassett (fl.1659-93) and Richard Chiswell (1639-1711) had bought the plates and obtained a 10-year privilege to print. They then sold the plates or single sheets to Christopher Browne (fl.1684-1712). Henry Overton acquired the plates c.1711 and used them in collections of maps. Overton’s nephew sold them to Dicey & Co. in 1754. Single sheets were still being sold as late as 1770.

DEVONSHIRE WITH EXCESTER DESCRIBED And the Armes of such Nobles as have borne the titles of them. Royal Arms. Hundreds listed but not added to map itself. Inset plan of EXCESTER in frame together with city arms. Inset left, eight coats of arms. No publisher's imprint panel. Boat in Bristol Channel (Ba) and Part of Somerset/Shyre added in pencil with Dorset also named.²