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A biography of John Speed
Little is known of Speed’s early life. It is known that he was born around 1552 in the village of Farndon in Cheshire.
As a youth he was trained by his father in the trade of tailoring and Speed took this trade to London where he settled in 1582.
John Speed married and fathered twelve sons and six daughters.
Speed developed an interest for history and map making and thought of himself as a historian. He met a courtier,
Sir Fulke Greville, who considerably influenced the direction of Speed’s life by introducing him to a number
of friends including some well known scholars of the day. William Camden, Robert Cotton and William Smith, all
of whom were to contribute to Speed’s later works, were introduced and became friends of John Speed. Greville
was also responsible for securing a position with the Customs House that allowed Speed to give up tailoring
and concentrate as a full time historian. Speed became a member of the Society of Antiquaries and for the remainder
of his life dedicated himself to history and cartography.
During the late 16th Century John Speed began to work towards creating the document that would secure his place
in history. In his mind the atlas entitled, ‘The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain’ was a historical
reference document detailing in text many events and places throughout the British Isles. It is however the maps,
added as supporting illustrations, in this title that he is now remembered for.
Studies of the maps show that Speed borrowed from many earlier works by a number of different cartographers
to create his own range of maps. Most notable is the influence of Thomas Saxton. In a number of Speed’s
maps Saxton’s maps have been used directly as detailed source material and it seems that Speed has made
additions in detail and added historical events significant to particular areas and then relabelled the work
as his own. Of Speed’s maps published in 1612 he himself acknowledged Hertfordshire, Montgomeryshire, Norfolk
and Worcestershire and Radnorshire as originating from Saxton’s maps of the late fifteen hundreds. However in
addition to these works, other works by Saxton were heavily used to produce almost identical maps Speed
accredited to himself. Examples of these include Somerset and Cornwall. A number of other cartographers
including John Norden, Thomas Durham, Gerardus Mercator and James Burrell all contributed to Speed’s maps
through earlier works of their own.
Before we begin to think Speed simply copied a number of earlier works to produce his Atlas of 1612,
we must credit Speed for his achievements in creating the number of works required to provide a complete
picture of Great Britain. Speed produced the first detailed map of Ireland by combining a number of earlier
works created to show individual parts of this country.
Most notable though are his town plans. In many cases these are the earliest impressions of the towns
they depict and provide both a valuable historical reference as well as a fascinating insight into the
structure of towns and cities in the England in the early 16th Century.
John Speed has been famously quoted as saying, ‘I have put my sickle into other men’s corn’, but justifies
his actions by adding ‘my many additions, and dimensions of the Shire-towns and Cities and by mine own
travels through every province of England’. Here Speed acknowledges his use of earlier source material but
justifies this through his own addition of town plans. I believe when using the word, ‘dimensions’ he is
commenting on his frequent inclusion of historical fact and flamboyant illustrations within individual maps.
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