Printed County Maps of the Isle of Wight, 1590-1870: a Check-List and Guide for Students (And Collectors)
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PRINTED COUNTY MAPS OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT, 1590-1870: A CHECK-LIST AND GUIDE FOR STUDENTS (AND COLLECTORS) By RAYMOND V. TIRI.EY THERE are several pitfalls awaiting the Naturally I cannot claim that my survey inexperienced student of those attractive, is complete, even within the limits set out decorative English county maps of the 17th, below, but I have tried to bring together 18th and even 19th centuries. Not least among material which is otherwise scattered over these are the difficulties of identifying an many reference books. Background informa- isolated specimen torn from its parent atlas, tion about the earliest printed maps of the or of simply knowing what is generally avail- Isle of Wight has been included since this able. This article, therefore, has been centred does not seem to be readily available else- round a chronological check-list covering the where. more important early maps of the Isle of Wight, as well as those most likely to be Limitations of the Survey found in the hands of dealers or in public Since I am dealing with an island, my first collections. limitation is to consider maps rather than Plate i. Part of Baptista Boazio's 'The true description or draffte of that famous He of Wighte' (1591), the earliest separate printed map of the Island so far discovered (British Library Maps G.2.a.n). Reproduced by per- mission of the Board of the British Library. Proc. Hants. Field Club Achaeol. Sc. 31, 1976, 53-64. 53 PROCEEDINGS FOR THE YEAR 1974 charts. To distinguish between these it will temporary colouring has been added. The be sufficient to say that in the case of a map, style of the engraving resembles that of the printed details relate mainly to the Jodocus Hondius, who is known to have been island's interior; whereas for a chart, they are in London at this date; but what of Baptista primarily concerned with the surrounding sea. Boazio who 'made' the map? My second limitation is restriction of cover- According to Edward Lynam, whose age to 'county' maps: i.e. maps on which 'English Maps and Mapmakers of the Six- detail outside the county boundary is only teenth Century' appears in a volume of his shown incidentally, or to supplement infor- collected essays The Mapmaker's Art (1953), mation given for the county itself. In this the available evidence indicates Boazio was a article the Island is treated as a county in its draughtsman rather than a surveyor; in other own right, so maps including both Hampshire words his maps were based on the surveys (the adjoining 'county') and the Isle of Wight of other men. Lynam also says: are automatically excluded. 'In 1591 Boazio drew a map of the Isle Maps of the Island issued separately, as of Wight which was no more inaccurate individual publications (those produced by than others of that time. This reveals him the Ordnance Survey, for example) have also as a mature draughtsman, calligrapher and been omitted, together with any which once colourist in the style of the Flemish school, formed part of local guide-books or histories with a taste for decoration on his maps, - I certainly have no desire to encourage especially for graceful sailing ships.' removal of the latter from their rightful homes. In fact, the emphasis throughout is Although my survey is basically concerned on maps extracted from general atlases or with printed maps, mention must be made at topographical works. this point of an important manuscript map by John Norden (which is also to be found in the British Library). During the 1590's this The Earliest Printed Maps of the Island skilful cartographer surveyed the .southern Of what is thought to be the earliest English counties, publishing maps of Surrey, (separate) printed map of the Isle of Wight, Sussex, and Hampshire (not including the only one copy is known; that in the Map Isle of Wight) between 1594 and 1596. • Library of the British Library (formerly the Norden evidently got into financial difficulty Map Room of the British Museum - Maps at this time. He used his earlier maps and C.2.a.ll (Pl.l)). Its title is rather explicit: notes, most of which are now lost, to compile 'The true description or draffte of that an elaborately decorated manuscript volume famous He of Wighte, with some parte of (B.L. Add. MS. 31,853) entitled the Englishe or Britaine coast and inwarde 'A Chorographicall discription of the Countreye of Hampshire and Sussex wherin seuerall Shires and Islands of Middlesex, Gentle Reader you maye See the true Essex, Surrey, Sussex, Hamshire, Weighte, distances sett downe by measure or Scale Garnesey and Jarsey, performed by the of any parte therof, also the particuler traueyle and uiew of John Norden, 1595', descriptions of Hills, Woodes, Beacons, and presented it to Queen Elizabeth I (with Castells, Rockes, and Townes, whiche vnto a pathetic letter describing his misfortunes) this platt are adioyninge. Made by Baptista in the hope of securing royal patronage. The Boazio. 1591. Scale of Englishe Moyles map of Hampshire in this volume extends [blank]'. only as far as the northern portion of the This map measures about 13£ x 10 inches: Isle of Wight but, inset along the right-hand the unfinished state of the scale suggests the side, are three additional maps of 'Weyght impression is an early proof, to which con- Hand' (P1.2), 'Iarsay', and 'Garnesay*. 54 PRINTED COUNTY MAPS OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT, 1590-1870 Plate 2. The Isle of Wight portion of John Norden's manuscript map of Hampshire (1595), taken from 'A Choro- graphicall discription of. seuerall Shires and Islands' (British Library Add. MS. 31,853). Reproduced by permission of the Board of the British Library. Norden's manuscript is today incomplete: of 159."): indeed R. A. Skelton (a former a portion of the text (relating to Sussex) and Superintendent of the Map Room of the several maps are missing. It is curious to note British Museum) considered the latter to have that the maps which originally formed part been based on Norden's work. of this volume were extracted during the 18th century; when at least three of them, to- Elsewhere Skelton (19.57) notes that the map gether with the title-page and dedication to of the Isle of Wight by Baptista Boazio (1591) the Queen, passed into the possession of also shows a close affinity with the Norden/ Francis Grose (the antiquary), and subse- Mercator version, and postulates the deriva- quently to Richard Bull of Northcourt, near tion of all three from a common original, Shorwell in the Isle of Wight. Some of this no longer extant, to which Boazio's map is material, including the map of Hampshire, nearest in time. He further suggests that since etc., was restored to Norden's manuscript the security of the Island was then a matter after the sale of Richard Bull's collection of of concern to the authorities, this lost original drawings and engravings in May, 1881. might have been a 'plot' drawn in connec- The manuscript map of the Island by John tion with defence projects by a military Norden is important because it very closely engineer, such as Richard Popinjay, Surveyor resembles that published in Mercator's Atlas of the Works at Portsmouth (who has several 55 PROCEEDINGS FOR THE YEAR 1974 plans of Portsmouth and the Solent to his 'The gentlemen which lived in ye Island credit). in ye 7th yere of Kinge James his reygne [c. 1610], all lived well, and weare moste However, the really intriguing feature about commonly at owre ordinarie, viz Mr. the earlier maps is that when John Speed William White, . .' came to publish his well known and picturesquely inaccurate map of the Isle of Elsewhere, in A Royalist's Notebook edited Wight in 1611 (based, incidentally, upon the by Francis Bamford (1936), mention is made work of William White - a cartographer of of a list drawn up by Sir Edward Dennis and whom virtually nothing else is known), there Sir John Oglander, Deputy Lieutenants of were in existence at least three more accurate the Isle of Wight, giving 'all the names of representations of the Island's coasdine; one those knights, gendemen, and others within of which, being published in an atlas our Island, who are anyway fitting to lend (Mercator's) of 1595, must by this time have His Majesty money, together with the sums achieved a reasonably wide circulation. More- according to their worths and abilities.' This over, the less accurate Speed version was document, which is dated 5th November, copied by some later cartographers (Blaeu, 1625, includes Mr. William White of Shalfleet 1645 for example, and Seller, 1694?), remain- - who was assessed at £20, the maximum ing current in one form or another even until amount. the end of the seventeenth century. The extent to which Speed relied on the Arrangement of Entries in the Check-List surveys of others is not always realised. As he Entries are arranged in chronological order, freely admits in his introduction to The maps being entered under the name of the Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine: person usually associated with them (whether 'it may be obiected that I haue put my or not that person actually drew the map) Sickle into other mens Corne, and haue laid followed by the date at which the item is my Building vpon other mens Foundations thought to have been first printed, and refer- (as indeed who can doe otherwise, especially ences to the standard Bibliographies of in a subiect of this nature)'.