William Fairbank was part of a four generation family of local surveyors. The company’s papers, maps, plans, books and letters are in the Sheffield City Archives. The tradition was begun by his father William Fairbank I, born 1687/88. He was a schoolmaster from a family of Quaker’s said to be from Halifax. He practiced surveying from Sheffield and died in 1759 leaving a son William Fairbank II (1730-1801), also a schoolmaster and surveyor. It is this Fairbank who is the author of this very rare plan of Sheffield. It is engraved by Thomas Jefferys and is important because in the following year, 1772, Jefferys would include a version of this plan in his large scale map of Yorkshire (see below). This therefore is the important survey first separately published. Provenance: private English collection. Eden (1975); Leader, R. E. (1903) ‘Surveyors and Architects of the Past in Sheffield’, Sheffield; Tooley (1999-2004).