John Speed 1610 

Born in Farndon, the son of a merchant tailor, John Speed draws heavily on Saxton and another mapmaker, William Smith, for the basis of his map. Fortunate in having a rich patron, Sir Fulke Greville, his map is embellished with a decorative scale and title cartouche and numerous coats-of-arms. As with Saxton, Speed’s map of Cheshire was one of a set produced for an atlas of ‘Great Britaine’. It provides additional placenames but the main feature of this map is the inclusion of a plan of Chester. This has a key to streets and buildings and a ‘Scale of Pases’ and Speed is said to have ‘paced’ the streets himself in preparing the map.

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