John Speed

John Speed
Memorial to John Speed, St Giles-without-Cripplegate
Born	1552 Farndon, Cheshire
Died	1629 (aged 76–77) St Giles-without-Cripplegate, Cripplegate, London
Nationality	English
Fields	Cartography, history

John Speed (1552 – 28 July 1629) was an English cartographer and historian. He is known as England's most famous Stuart period mapmaker.

Speed was born at Farndon, Cheshire, and went into his father's tailoring business. While working in London, his knowledge of history led him into learned circles and he came to the attention of Sir Fulke Greville, who subsequently made him an allowance to enable him to devote his whole attention to research. As a reward for his earlier efforts, Queen Elizabeth granted Speed the use of a room in the Custom House.

He is buried with his wife in St Giles-without-Cripplegate church, Fore Street within the Barbican Estate in the City of London. A memorial to John Speed was also erected behind the altar of the church. According to the church's website, "[His was] one of the few memorials [in the church] that survived the bombing" of London during The Blitz of 1940–1941 ... The website also notes that "[t]he cast for the niche in which the bust is placed was provided by the Merchant Taylors' Company, of which John Speed was a member." His memorial brass has ended up on display in the Burrell Collection near Glasgow.

It was with the encouragement of William Camden that Speed began his Historie of Great Britaine, which was published in 1611. Although he probably had access to historical sources that are now lost to us (he certainly used the work of Saxton and Norden), his work as a historian is now considered secondary in importance to his map-making, of which his most important contribution is probably his town plans, many of which provide the first visual record of the British towns they depict.

His atlas The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine was published in 1610/11, and contained the first set of individual county maps of England and Wales besides maps of Ireland [five in all] and a general map of Scotland. Most, but not all, of the county maps have town plans on them; those showing a Scale of Passes being the places he had mapped himself. In 1627, two years before his death, Speed published Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World which was the first world atlas produced by an Englishman. There is a fascinating text describing the areas shown on the back of the maps in English, although a rare edition of 1616 of the British maps has a Latin text – this is believed to have been produced for the Continental market. Much of the engraving was done in Amsterdam at the workshop of Jodocus Hondius. His maps of English and Welsh counties are often found framed in homes throughout the United Kingdom.