Northumberland – John Speed – Published By Henry Overton – 1710

Cartographer: John Speed (Speede)
Publisher: Henry Overton
Price: £495 including postage in the UK
Publication Date: c.1710
Edition: Henry Overton edition
Sheet Size: 60.8cm x 48.7cm
Condition: Very good

Condition:

Original copper-engraved map. Sheet size: 60.8cm x 48.7cm. Publishers show as Bassett and Chiswell but this is from an edition printed by Henry Overton in c.1710 or later. Blank to the verso as is found with the edition published by Henry Overton. Includes inset maps of Berwick and Newcastle. Good wide margins but with some age toning and browning which is mainly confined to the margins and the verso. Early hand-colouring. A very scarce edition of John Speed’s map of Northumberland and in very good condition overall.

John Speed: A Brief Biography

John Speed (1551–1629) was the most important English mapmaker of the early seventeenth century and the first to produce a systematic, printed atlas of England and Wales on a national scale. His work combined cartography, history, genealogy, and antiquarian scholarship, making him not merely a mapmaker but a historical geographer. Speed’s maps shaped English perceptions of place, identity, and history for generations and remain among the most recognisable images of early modern Britain.

1. Early Life and Background (1551–1580s)

John Speed was born in 1551 in Farndon, Cheshire, into a modest family. His father was a tailor, and Speed initially followed the same trade. This background placed him outside the educated elite and makes his later intellectual achievements particularly notable.

Despite limited formal schooling, Speed showed early aptitude for:

• Mathematics
• Drawing
• Historical enquiry

His early life coincided with profound national change: the English Reformation, the consolidation of Tudor power, and the emergence of England as a maritime and commercial state.

2. London and the Merchant Taylors’ Company

By the late sixteenth century, Speed had moved to London, where he became a member of the Merchant Taylors’ Company, one of the city’s most powerful livery companies.

This environment proved crucial:

• It exposed him to networks of educated merchants and patrons
• It provided financial and institutional support
• It allowed Speed to pursue intellectual work alongside his trade

Speed’s cartographic career was not an early vocation but a mid-life transformation, driven by scholarship rather than commercial training.

3. Patronage and Intellectual Formation

Sir Fulke Greville

Speed’s career was transformed by the patronage of Sir Fulke Greville, a poet, courtier, and close associate of Sir Philip Sidney. Greville recognised Speed’s talents and provided:

• Financial support
• Access to libraries and manuscripts
• Protection that allowed Speed to devote himself fully to scholarship

This patronage was essential; without it, Speed’s cartographic work would likely never have been completed.

Antiquarian Interests

Speed became deeply involved in the Elizabethan and Jacobean antiquarian movement, alongside figures such as William Camden. He combined:

• Documentary history
• Heraldry
• Topography
• Biblical and classical chronology

This intellectual context shaped the distinctive character of his maps.

4. Early Cartographic Work

Speed began by producing:

• Historical maps
• Genealogical tables
• Biblical and classical reconstructions

His first major project was a set of historical maps of Canaan and biblical lands, reflecting contemporary interest in sacred geography.

These works established his reputation as a serious scholar rather than a mere draftsman.

5. The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine (1611–1612)

The Great Achievement

Speed’s masterpiece, The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine, was published in stages from 1611, with subsequent editions throughout the 17th century.

It was the first comprehensive atlas of England and Wales, and later Scotland, produced by an Englishman.

Structure and Content

Each county map typically included:

• A detailed county map
• Plans of principal towns and cities
• Royal coats of arms and heraldry
• Genealogical tables of English kings
• Historical and descriptive text

This integration of geography and history was unprecedented in English cartography.

Sources and Production

Speed did not survey the land himself. Instead, he:

• Built upon earlier cartographers, especially Christopher Saxton
• Updated boundaries, place-names, and details
• Employed skilled engravers, notably in Amsterdam

The plates were engraved abroad because English engraving was not yet sufficiently developed for work of this complexity.

6. Style and Cartographic Character

Speed’s maps are distinguished by:

• Clear, readable layout
• Decorative borders and heraldry
• Emphasis on counties as historical entities
• Town plans that reinforce civic identity

Unlike purely navigational maps, Speed’s work is symbolic and cultural, presenting England as:

• Ordered
• Ancient
• Legitimate
• Unified under monarchy

His cartography supported the ideological project of early Stuart state-building.

7. A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World (1627)

Later in life, Speed published a world atlas, A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World.

This work included:

• World maps
• Continental maps
• City views

Although less original than his British atlas, it placed England within a global framework, reflecting growing imperial and commercial ambition.

8. Religious and Political Outlook

Speed was a committed Protestant and loyal monarchist. His work reflects:

• Respect for royal authority
• Interest in biblical history
• A providential view of English history

Maps, for Speed, were not neutral tools but instruments for expressing divine order, national continuity, and historical legitimacy.

9. Later Life and Death (1620s)

Speed continued working into old age, refining editions of his atlases. He died in 1629 and was buried in St Giles-without-Cripplegate, London, a parish associated with many notable figures.

By the time of his death, his reputation was firmly established.

10. Legacy and Historical Significance

Cartographic Legacy

John Speed’s work:

• Defined the visual geography of England for over a century
• Became the standard county mapping reference
• Influenced later British cartographers

His maps were widely copied, reprinted, and collected.

Cultural Importance

Speed’s atlases:

• Reinforced English national identity
• Preserved historical boundaries and place-names
• Shaped popular understanding of local and national history

Today, his maps are prized by:

• Historians
• Collectors
• Libraries and museums

Conclusion

John Speed rose from artisan origins to become England’s foremost early modern cartographer. Through scholarship, patronage, and intellectual ambition, he produced works that fused geography with history in a way no English mapmaker had previously achieved. His maps are not merely technical documents but cultural artefacts, expressing how early seventeenth-century England understood itself, its past, and its place in the world.

Speed’s enduring reputation rests on this achievement: he gave England a map of itself that was at once geographical, historical, and symbolic.

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