The dating of the Christopher Browne ownership of the Speed plates is speculative. The previous owners Thomas Bassett and Richard Chiswell had been granted a ten-year privilege which expired in 1686. It would be logical to assume that they would have retained ownership throughout this period. It has been suggested that the plates of the Theatre at least came in to the hands of Robert Walton first. Certainly by 1691 they were all in the possession of Browne. Browne was apprenticed to Walton in 1683 and was made free in July 1688. In that month he also took over the stock and business of Walton, it is presumed upon his death. A collection of 64 maps sold by Browne was in the possession of Francis Edwards in 1967. The book bore the ownership inscription of Devereux Knightley 1691 and the Irish map by Browne dated the same year was also present. All the maps including those owned by Browne and the Speed’s were printed from the same paper stock. Interestingly of the six county maps known to bear the Browne imprint only one was present. They were replaced by one Speed with Bassett and Chiswell imprint, one Overton and 3 Jansson maps. An explanation may be that they were away at the engravers having the imprints altered. One or two maps from the Prospect are known to bear the Browne imprint. From the evidence we have it is hard to speculate if an atlas edition was intended or whether he just wanted to stamp ownership on them. Of the six that bear his imprint five are contiguous counties in the south west, the sixth is Yorkshire. That of Hampshire only, bears the addition of roads. The atlas, if it can be called a regular edition, is exceedingly rare. Only four other known collections exist: National Maritime Museum; National Archives; private English collection; Burden Collection. None are complete. Skelton 116.