2.      John Speed                                                                                           1610
 


John Hooker’s map was among the first printed maps of any of the cities and towns of England, and his city plan became the example and the only original printed plan of the city for almost 150 years. Like so much of the cartographers’ art Hooker’s plan was copied frequently, either in the early 17th century as the authentic map of the city or later as a descriptive map of its time.

The most influential of the copyists chose either of two forms: most used a small scale reduction, with or without the lettered references - John Speed in 1610-11 included this in his map of the county (B&B 6); or like Braun and Hogenberg they copied the plan at nearly the original scale and repeated the same lettering. Speed’s own copy of Hooker was copied until 1749 and Hogenberg reproductions until 1895. The subsequent ‘copies’ repeat the city plan with varying amounts of the surrounding country and decorations.

John Speed (1552-1629) was born in Cheshire and like his father became a tailor. By 1580 he had moved to London and had become a freeman of the Merchant Tailors Company. But he had also become a keen amateur historian and joined the Society of Antiquarians, where he would have met William Camden, a famous historian, and Christopher Saxton, responsible for the first printed county maps of English shires, among others. He became interested in maps and by 1598 he was producing his own maps for the Company. Fulke Greville, M.P., Chancellor of the Exchequer and friend of Queen Elizabeth I, arranged for Speed to have an allowance to write a history of England and arranged for him to use a room in the London Custom House. As an historian he was a great gatherer of information. His maps were based on Saxton’s and those of John Norden, but he travelled extensively and his maps contained much local information including the lines of the hundreds and, for Devon, the inset map of Exeter based on Hooker.

Speed prepared his county maps over a period of some years[1] and in 1610-11 his Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain was published. In 1627 he completed his atlas A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World and this was then commonly bound combined with the Theatre and together they became the first World Atlas produced by an Englishman. The county map was reissued many times until approx. 1770, both in the atlas and as separate sheets. 

Title: EXCESTER on the county map DEVONSHIRE WITH EXCESTER DESCRIBED. 

Size: The inset is small, measuring only 132 x 155 mm, and has no scale (circa 1 Mile = 30 mm). The City Arms are top right within the inset with the title top left.

Signatures (on county map only): Performed by Ihon Speede And are to be sold in popes-head Alleye by Iohn Sudburi & George humble. Cum privilegio. 

The plan is a reduced copy of Hooker’s plan of 1587, covering the same area and again with North to the left. The only writing within the walls are the numbers referring to the list above the plan, however numbers 49 (the Water–gate) and 50 (the Quay) are missing from the list. The Castle’s western barbican is pronounced and the river, flowing down Combe Street with the outfall through the wall, is clearly shown. Outside the city Radford Place, St. Leonard and Larkbeare can be seen.

 Due probably to damage to the printing plate, in 1689 Philip Lea commissioned Francis Lamb to copy Christopher Saxton´s map of Devon but including a number of changes such as inclusion of John Speed’s inset plan of Exeter (B&B 19).[2] Although the county map was redrawn, and as such was a newly engraved map, the actual inset plan was a direct copy with the same reference numbers and has not been included as a new map. Although the county map’s signature changed as the plates changed hands the only change to the Exeter inset occurred in 1743 when some details were strengthened and the stonework to the walls became almost obliterated by angled shading. Illustrated is the Exeter plan from the Bassett and Chiswell county map, c.1676.


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[1] A single proof of the Devon map is known for 1608 and the first edition of the Theatre was published 1610/1611.

[2] Lea acquired most of the Saxton plates but two were obviously missing, as Devon and Northumberland were re-engraved. The most obvious differences to the Saxton map are the inclusions of the shields of arms of notable families (left) and the inset plan of Exeter (bottom right) as included by Speed.

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