35.     George Oliver / John Leland                                    1850 (1600)

 

The Reverend George Oliver was both Catholic priest and Exeter historian. He was born at Newington, Surrey in 1781 and was promoted to holy orders and moved to Exeter to the mission of the Society of Jesus at St. Nicholas in 1807. He retired in 1851 but continued to live in the priory until his death in 1861. He wrote numerous works on the history of Devon, the church and the catholic faith in the west. Probably while researching for material for a second edition of his History of Exeter (first published 1821) he came across two early plans of the castle which he then included in an essay in The Archaeological Journal of June 1850^[1]. The first was a manuscript plan (the original 480 x 480 mm) in the British Library which was for a long time thought to be by John Leland, the antiquarian and poet who visited Exeter in 1542^[2] and a second plan attributed to John Norden (see next entry).

Title: GROUND PLAN OF EXETER CASTLE above plan and below From an Original Survey in the reign of Henry VIII Preserved in the British Museum.

Size: 110 x 115 mm. No signature. An indication of scale is shown by 300 paces across courtyard. 

It shows the old Norman entry, closed up in late medieval time, as the Ould Port, and beside it ye latter port, where Castle Street ends today. Opposite, across the court, are the ould and latter sally ports. It shows the escarpment and the ditch, but it shows no buildings within the court and only suggests King John’s bastion and Athelstan’s tower.

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^[1] The Archaeological Journal for the Encouragement and Prosecution into the Arts and Monuments of the Early and Middle Ages published by the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland June 1850 as part of Volume VII.

^[2] It was described as “Temp. Henry VIII” but Peter Barber of the Map Library has suggested a date closer to 1600 based on the style of hand-writing (i.e. 50 years after Leland’s death).

 36.     George Oliver / John Norden                                               1850 (1617)

 

John Norden (1548-1625), surveyor and topographer, produced the first complete series of county histories and invented the triangular distance table (Intended Guyde for English Travailers in 1625). In 1600 he was appointed to survey the crown´s forests in Devon (and other counties) and surveyed those areas c.1608. As surveyor of the King´s castles (appointed 1612) Norden surveyed Exeter castle in 1615 or 1617 (when James I made over the manorial rights of the Duchy of Lancaster and Cornwall to his ‘dearly beloved Charles’). The survey was presumably drawn to settle the actual castle boundaries, and made under the instruction of Sir James Fullerton, Surveyor General. 

Title: FACSIMILE PLAN OF THE CASTLE PRECINCT, EXETER and below MADE BY NORDEN IN 1617, AND ATTACHED TO HIS SURVEY. ADDL MSS BRITISH MUSEUM No. 6027.

Size: nominally 170 x 205 mm. There is no scale.

Signatures: P. H. De la Motte, del. (bottom left) and J. H. le Keux, sc. (bottom right). 

Plain sketch of castle area with the border broken at the top for a small triangular piece of the Castle Hill. Letters A – K as references but which are not explained on the map sheet.

This plan was included by Oliver in two of his writings: it appeared first in The Archaeological Journal of June 1850 (see above, illustrated opposite); and it was reissued with the reference key (see opposite) in his History of Exeter of 1861 with letter L added, signatures replaced by that of Geo. G. Palmer, Lith, Exeter and everything in title after date deleted. The plan was also copied for W M Bounsall’s Exmouth and its Neighbourhood (1868, illustrated below) with small variations. Bounsall’s plan has title John Norden’s Plan of Exceter Castle and Parte of the Citie of Exceter 1617 (upper case) and is signed by Day & Son (Limited) Lith.

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