County maps

Christopher Saxton (1542?–1610/11) was a professional surveyor and produced the first county atlas of England and Wales in 1579.

The 13 Welsh Counties were covered in 7 maps, as follows:

• Monmethensis Comitatus Regis Reference: MAP 5298
• Glamorgā comitatus … Reference: MAP 5227
• Radnor Breknok Cardigan et Caermarden … Reference: MAP 5360
• Penbrok comitat … Reference: MAP 5326
• Montgomeri ac Merionidh … Reference: MAP 5304
• Denbigh ac Flint duorum olim Cambriae … Reference: MAP 5190
• Mone Insulæ modo Anglesey, et Caernaruan … Reference: MAP 5088

Saxton’s work was based on detailed surveys and was the most detailed of its day. These maps, or variants of them continued in use for over a century, and later they were split into their individual counties for use in Camden’s Britannia (6th Latin edition of 1607). The National Library of Wales has multiple copies both bound and loose of Saxton’s Welsh maps and their derivatives.

Reference: MAP 01000 & MAP 01001

George Owen (c.1552-1613), a historian, antiquary, and genealogist who lived at Henllys in Pembrokeshire, created his map of the county in 1602. It is of great historical and cultural significance, and is notable for several innovative features - it shows the roads and has an alphanumeric grid with an index of place names, each with a grid coordinate to locate it on the map. Such was the quality of this map that it was used as a basis for the Pembrokeshire map printed in Camden’s Britannia (1607), in preference to the equivalent Saxton map, one of the few maps to achieve this feat.

The Library holds 2 versions of this manuscript map – the 2nd version appears to be a later one and has been dated (with uncertainty) to 1603. There are slight differences between the two maps, but both are thought to be by Owen.

• Penbrochiæ comitatus olim Demetiæ Regionis Reference: MAP 01000
• Penbrochiae comitatus Reference: MAP 01001

In 1611 John Speed (1551/2–1629), an English historian and renowned cartographer, published his ‘Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain’. The 2nd of this work’s 4 volumes covered Wales and included a map of Wales along with individual maps of the 13 Welsh counties. Most of the maps in Speed’s work are dated 1610, though a few are earlier. Speed’s ‘Theatre’ was extremely successful and its maps became the basis for folio atlases produced up to the mid-18th century.

• Anglesey Reference: Map 5100
• Breknoke Reference: Map 5109
• Caernarvon Reference: Map 5128
• Cardigan shyre described Reference: Map 5151
• Caermarden Reference: Map 5186
• Denbighshire Reference: Map 5199
• Flint-shire Reference: Map 5216
• Glamorgan shyre Reference: Map 5232
• Merionethshire Reference: Map 5254
• The countye of Monmouth Reference: Map 5288
• Montgomery shire Reference: Map 5310
• Pembrokshyre described Reference: Map 5335
• The Countie of Radnor described Reference: Map 5375

Speed’s work improves on that of previous works by other cartographers e.g. Christopher Saxton (1542x4?–1610/11), by providing greater detail and also by including small inset plans of important towns on each map.

The National Library of Wales has multiple copies of these county maps by Speed, and in addition to the published versions we also have proof copies for 7 of the Welsh shires: Brecon, Cardigan, Carmarthen, Denbigh, Merioneth, Montgomery and Radnor, which were all purchased in 1998.

Thomas Taylor (fl.1670-1730) was a book, print and map seller in London, between 1670 and 1721. His various addresses are recorded as 'next door to the Beehive on London Bridge', 'at the Hand and Bible in the New Buildings on London Bridge' and 'at Ye Golden Lyon, over against Serjeants Inn in Fleet Street'. He was also responsible for the publication of several maps including England exactly described [...] in 1715 containing maps of the English counties which had been issued previously in Speed's Maps Epitomiz'd in 1681 and in other works. However, Taylor is significant in a Welsh context for publishing the small county atlas The Principality of Wales exactly described [...] in 1718, which seems to have been the first published atlas relating entirely to Wales.

The title page of the volume is enclosed by a double-lined border enclosing a leaf design. Unlike the maps in England exactly described, the ten maps in his Welsh atlas appear to be new. They are not numbered and are described and arranged as follows in the atlas:

Pembrokeshire with its hundreds 1718
A new mapp of Carmarthenshire with its hundreds by Tho: Taylor 1718
A new mapp of Glamorganshire with its hundreds by Tho: Taylor 1718
Brecknockshire with its hundreds by Tho: Taylor. Radnorshire with its hundreds by Tho: Taylor 1718
Cardiganshire described with its hundreds by Tho: Taylor 1718
A new mapp of Montgomeryshire with its hundreds by Tho: Taylor 1718
A new mapp of Merionethshire described with all its hundreds by Tho: Taylor 1718
Denbighshire by Tho: Taylor. Flintshire by Tho: Taylor 1718
A new mapp of Caernarvonshire by Tho: Taylor 1718
A new mapp of the Isle of Anglesey with its hundreds by Tho: Taylor 1718

The titles and dates, except those of Pembrokeshire and Merioneth, appear within ornamental cartouches which are the only decorative features of the maps. Pembrokeshire's decorative cartouche bears a dedication by Taylor to Sir John Philipps of Picton Castle, near Haverfordwest and is the only map to have such an inscription.

The maps are all drawn to a fairly uniform scale of about 1 inch to 7 miles or 1:443520. A scale bar of 10 miles is shown on each map. All bear the imprint "Sold by Tho: Taylor at the Golden Lyon in Fleet Street", all are dated 1718 and measure 18 x 25 cm. within their double-lined plain border, each being on a double page with a blank back. Taylor’s maps generally show individual counties, together with some incomplete detail of the adjoining counties. Breconshire and Radnorshire appear on the same sheet, as do Denbighshire and Flintshire, and according to the tradition of the time, Monmouthshire is omitted as it was considered to be part of England.

The mountains and hills are represented pictorially as 'molehills' and the larger rivers are engraved and occasionally named. The locations of towns and larger villages are shown and they are named, together with the hundreds, which appear on most maps, the latter being accompanied by their listing in an inventory. Hundreds are not displayed in the maps of Denbighshire, Flintshire and Caernarfonshire. Castles, highways, distances from Ogilby's survey and a compass rose appear on each map.

The brothers Christopher and John Greenwood were surveyors from Yorkshire. In the early 19th century Christopher embarked on a project to produce large scale maps of all the counties of England and Wales from original survey, starting with his native Yorkshire in about 1815. The map of Yorkshire on nine sheets at a scale of ¾ of an inch to a mile was published in 1818, in which year he opened an office in London to continue his work in the rest of the country. In 1822 Christopher was joined by his brother John and together they continued to work on the project until John returned to Yorkshire sometime before 1838.

Apart from Yorkshire and Middlesex (published at two inches to a mile) most of the counties of England were published at a scale of one inch to a mile, the same as the first Ordnance Survey maps. The counties of Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Oxfordshire were never published. The Greenwoods were probably the last private surveyors to attempt such a feat as after this period the OS map made such endeavours commercially unviable.

The only Welsh county published at one inch to a mile was Monmouthshire, the other Welsh counties were grouped together in court circuits and covered by four maps at the same scale as the map of Yorkshire. However, only the map of the South-east Circuit, covering Glamorgan, Breconshire and Radnorshire appears to have been published.

Between 1828 and 1834 the Greenwoods published a reduced scale version of their maps at approximately 3 miles to the inch, which was published as an atlas in four parts. This atlas included the previously unpublished maps, including the other three Welsh circuit maps.

The links below give access to examples of the two large-scale maps published (Monmouthshire and the South-East Circuit) as well as the five smaller scale maps produced for the atlas. In addition to the maps there is a copy of a prospectus produced by the Greenwoods seeking financial backing for their publications.

• Map of the county of Monmouth … Reference: Tredegar Folded Maps 3
• Map of the county of Monmouth … Reference: MAP 4014
• Map of the south east circuit … Reference: Tredegar Folded Maps 2
• Map of the south east circuit of the Principality of Wales … Reference: MAP 11307
• Map of the north east circuit of the Principality of Wales … Reference: MAP 11303
• Map of the south west circuit of the Principality of Wales … Reference: MAP 11304
• Map of the north west circuit of the Principality of Wales … Reference: MAP 11308
• Prospectus for the publication of a series of new maps by C. Greenwood and Co., giving sizes and prices, listing ... Reference: Vivian L13

Other county maps that have been digitised by The National Library of Wales include:

• A new map of the counties of Denbigh and Flint [ca. 1720], William Williams Reference: MAP 5882
• A new map of Cardiganshire from an actual survey made by Joseph Singer, land surveyor (1803) Reference: Ab 1036
• To the nobility gentry clergy and others this map of the county of Monmouth (1785), Robert Snell Reference: Tredegar 425
• A map of the County of Glamorgan … (1799) Reference: Vivian 2
• A map of the county of Pembroke … (1827) Reference: MAP 4905
• A new map of the county of Monmouthshire (1823) Reference: MAP 10848