Christopher Saxton’s map of Essex according to Evans and Lawrence was produced before the final format of the atlas had been formulated. In common with four other counties including Cornwall that of Essex includes all of the Hundreds. This evidence led Evans and Lawrence to presume that Saxton completed his survey of Essex early in 1576. It is unsigned by any engraver and is one of the few county maps in which William Web did not anglicise the title.

William Web (fl.1629-52) was a bookseller from Oxford. In 1645 he published ‘The Maps of all the Shires in England and Wales. Exactly taken and truly described by Christopher Saxton’. The imprint states ‘Printed for William Web at the Globe in Cornehill, London’, despite Web being a bookseller in Oxford. Quite how he came into possession of the Saxton plates is unknown. The fact that the court of Charles I was in Oxford for the duration of the Civil War (1642-46) and the atlas is dedicated to the King can be no coincidence. The war undoubtedly caused a delay as most maps bear the date of 1642 despite the title imprint being 1645. Because it did not have the same impact and no doubt because of the Civil War this edition of Saxton’s atlas is one of the rarest surviving in ONLY THREE RECORDED EXAMPLES. Provenance: Hartland Library sold Puttick Auction 30 April 1906 lot 270; Bonhams 12 February 2002 lot 566; private English collection. Evans & Lawrence (1979) pp. 45-7 & p. 59 no. 10; Shirley (2004) T.Sax 1g; Skelton (1970) 27.