This map is by arguably the most famous English cartographer, John Speed (1552-1629) and first published in the ‘Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain’, 1612. It was the first atlas of the whole British Isles. He was a tailor by trade and had a fascination for history. He used numerous sources for the counties and had the plates engraved by Jodocus Hondius in Amsterdam. The book took several years to prepare hence earlier dates appear on some. This issue is from the extremely rare post Bassett and Chiswell edition by Christopher Browne. His maps are noted for being the first to include the boundaries of the hundreds, and for introducing town plans on the maps. This includes inset plans of both Stafford and Lichfield. We know this to be a Browne issue as it has a plain back and like most Brownes and unlike the latter Overton issues was uncoloured.

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. Certainly by 1691 they were all in the possession of Browne. 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. 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. The atlas if it can be called a regular edition, is exceedingly rare. Only four known collections exist. Hodson 135; King ‘Staffordshire’ no. 6; Skelton 116.