A VERY RARE AND IMPORTANT plan of Coventry surveyed by Samuel Bradford (1725-51) and engraved and published by Thomas Jefferys (c.1710-71) of London in 1750. With the exception of the small plan on John Speed’s map of the county this is the FIRST PRINTED PLAN OF THE CITY. Jefferys began his career as a noted engraver for books and magazines but soon stepped into the world of publishing. He began in 1732 in Red Lyon Street and in 1746 was appointed ‘Geographer to the Prince of Wales’. In 1749 he produced ‘The Small English Atlas’ in partnership with Thomas Kitchin. In the year this plan was published 1750 he got married and moved to the Corner of St. Martin’s Lane. It is at this time that Jefferys published a small number of folio sized town plans; Bradford’s plans of Birmingham and Coventry offered here, Noble and Butlin’s Northampton and Isaac Taylor’s Wolverhampton also offered in this catalogue.

Samuel Bradford was the son of Henry Bradford after whom the street of the same name in Birmingham is named. Henry was a landowner and Quaker timber merchant in Birmingham, Samuel produced a plan of Birmingham in 1751. His survey of Coventry took place in the years 1748 and 1749. Oriented with north to the top of the page the coverage takes in pretty much the entire modern city within the confines of the Ringway. All of the streets are named and each building shown in plan form. The gates in to the town and five buildings are regarded as of sufficient importance to be shown in bird’s eye form rather than as a plan. The Cross is selected for an inset view at the bottom. The original medieval Cross was rebuilt in 1542 thanks to a bequest of £200 from the former mayor of London Sir William Hollis who had connections with the town. Individual fields within the town confines are clearly shown. The whole map is drawn at the remarkable scale of 66 yards to the inch as shown lower left. A large vignette upper right contains a description of the town with a further ornate cartouche upper left containing the title. The plan is dedicated lower centre by Jefferys to ‘His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales’.

This fine example is the first state of the map printed shortly after the survey was undertaken. We only could locate two examples in British Libraries; the British Library example forms part of King George III’s Topographical Collection (Maps K.Top.42.83) and Cambridge University Library (Maps.aa.89.75.1). Harley, J. B. ‘The bankruptcy of Thomas Jefferys’ in ‘Imago Mundi’ 20 pp. 27-48.