Proc. Hampsh. Field Club Archaeol. Soc. 4 7 , 1991, 181-189

JOHN NORDEN'S 'SPECULUM BRITANNIAE: PARS - THEISLE OF WIGHT' AND SOME ELIZABETHAN MANUSCRIPT

MAPS OF THE ISLAND

By FRANK KITCHEN

ABSTRACTThis paper introduces and presents a description of the Isle of Wight written in 1594 by the important cartographer John Norden. The provenance of his map of the Isle is discussed and several other contemporary manuscript maps are con-sidered. One of these is suggested as the source of the well known map used by Speed in his atlas of 1611.

John Norden was born about the time of thedeath of Henry VIII and after graduating MAfrom Hart Hall, Oxford began a career as a lawyer. The first twenty years of his practiceseem to have been mainly for country gentry; anoccupation which led him about the countryand involved him deeply in land leases, ten-ures, management and survey. Early in the1590s he conceived his Speculum Brilanniae - TheMirror of Britain - a series of pocket guidebooks to the counties of Britain, each to have a county map (Ravenhill 1972, 14). In 1591 heprepared the first Pars of this work, a manu-script description of Northamptonshire whichhe presented to Lord Burghley in the hope ofgaining his patronage (British Library Maps,c7, b20). This was not forthcoming but in 1593the Privy Council did issue Norden with a warrant to allow him 'to travail throughEngland and Wales to make more perfectdescription, charts and maps'. The Councilinstructed the 'Lieutenants of Counties, May-ors, Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace and all othersof Her Majesties officers and loving subjects . . . to permit and suffer the said J . Norden quietly,and without any manner of let or hindrance, totravel and pass from place to place', andrequested those who could to help with him'sight and view' of any 'ancient muniments,books, rolls or records, that may further or helphis work' (Historic Manuscript Commission,7th Report, Lowndes Mss, 540).

By now Norden had completed a descriptionof Middlesex but as no financial support hadyet materialised he published it at his ownexpense, again dedicated to Burghley. Thefollowing year a third Pars of the Speculum - forEssex - was finished and Norden presentedmanuscript copies to the Earl of Essex as wellas to Burghley (Ellis 1840, ix—xxv). However,neither Lord offered financial support so in1595 he made a supreme effort with the pro-duction of a manuscript volume includingdescriptions and maps of Middlesex, Essex,Hampshire, Sussex, Surrey and the islands ofWight, Jersey and Guernsey. This volume waspresented to the Queen with a pathetic cover-ing letter describing his hardship and travailsbut Elizabeth was not moved.

Slowly Norden put the venture down. Dur-ing the next ten years he wrote perhaps threemore descriptions: of Hertfordshire, Cornwalland possibly Kent (Gough 1768, I, 441). Even-tually he gave up the task to concentrate on hiswork as a land surveyor and, apart from a successful text on surveying, he confined hiswriting to devotional work and a traveller'sguide promoting his invention of the trian-gular distance tables so familiar in road atlasestoday. He had a successful career both assurveyor and religious writer: he publishedsome 14 religious books, one of which went to40 editions and 'sold much better than themost successful of Shakespeare's Quartos'(Pollard 1926, 238). As a surveyor he becamevariously Surveyor of Crown Woods and Fore-sts, of the Duchy of Cornwall, and in 1612, ofthe King's Castles (Cal SP Domestic, xii, 4;lxxi, 43).

Despite the failure of the Speculum Britanniae, the county maps Norden prepared for it hadsome success. Those for Hampshire, Hert-

182 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

fordshire, Kent, Middlesex, Sussex and Surreywere used to illustrate the 6th edition ofCamden's Britannia and John Speed 'augmen-ted' and used Norden's maps of Cornwall,Sussex, Surrey, Middlesex, Essex and perhapsNorthamptonshire and Hampshire in hiscounty atlas - The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain - i n 1611 (Laxton 1976).

The manuscript presented to the Queenwhich contained the description and map ofthe Isle of Wight was probably placed in theQueen's Library but it was removed, doubtlessduring the Civil War, and went throughnumerous adventures before most of the vari-ous parts into which it had been split wereunited in the British Museum in 1881 (BritishLibrary, Add MS 31853). Most of the variousPars of the Speculum which Norden completedhave been published since his death, theexceptions being those for Sussex, Hampshire,Surrey, and the three islands.

Norden's description of the Isle of Wightadds little to our knowledge of the island in thelate Elizabethan period, for on his own admis-sion he did not visit the Isle, but it might beconsidered of interest if only for the light itsheds upon the confused state of knowledge ofthe island's past in 1595 and as a step towardsthe complete availability of this uniquedocument.

SPECULUM BRITANNIAE: PARS - THEISLE OF WIGHT

A Brief Commemoration of the Wight, Garnsey & JerseyIslands united bothe in ccclesiasticall andciuell gouerment unto Hamshire and in thatregard I thowght it fitt to remember themthowgh I haue not traueyled in them butreporting the description as the workes ofother men.

The Wighte, an Islande as it were removedor separate by the working of the sea from theprouince of the 'Vites', a people of Germanieof whom Bede sayth came also the Kentishmen, which 'Vites' also possessing Hamshire,

parte of Wiltesex and other places, maybesupposed to receyue denomination as fromthem: 'Vite' or 'Wite' althowgh ther appearesundrie opininons of the name as of the Lati-nes, or Romaynes, 'Vectis Insula'. As anIslande carried from the mayne wherof itseemeth most probable to take name whichagreeth with the Britons who called it 'Gueid'or 'Guith' which signifieth 'diuorticum': a sep-eration.

The soyle of the Islande is affirmed to bevcric frutefull, aboundinge with cattel, corne,pasture, meadow, wood, fishe and fowle.

This Islande is now in length abowt 20 milesas appeareth and 10 miles in breadth. ButBcdc reportheth it to be in his time 30 miles inlength & 12 miles in bredth, which argueth a decrease, confirming therby the separation.

In the Britons time it was gouerned by a perticular Kinge from whom Vespasian, whowas sent into Brytayne by Claudius, subduedit to the Romaynes from whom after it was bythem manie years enioyed. It was wonneagaync by the sowth saxon kings who helde thesame tributarie untill it was agayne enforcedfrom them in the time of Athelwalde, a sowthsaxon kinge, by Cedwallo who slew Arualde,Kinge of the Islande and helde the dominionthcrof in his owne handes, by means of thisusurped title wherof after him his successorswere accompted kinges.

This isle was firste conuerted to theChristian knowledge by Wilfride B[ishop]. ofYorke, to whome the same Cedwallo gaue 300tenements in regarde of his preaching to then-habitantes.

In the time of H:l [Henry I] it was belongingto Baldewine of Redvers, called de Reduerys,from whom K Stephen forceblye inuested thesame. But was restored to his inheritance theragaync by H:3 who made him Earle of yeWight after warde it came to Willm de For-tibus by mariage of the dawghter of WillmLegrosse, E. of Awmarle [Albemarle], wife tothe seyde Baldwin in whose righte he becameE. of Wight, Awmarle & Deuon. In whose lyneit contynued untill Isabell de Fortibus, soleheir unto the former Earldomes, yielded theWighte to E:3, contynunge in the possession of

KITCHEN: JOHN NORDEN'S 'SPECULUM BR1TANNIAE 183

the crowrie till H:6 dignified Henrye Beau-champe, sonne to the Lo. Richarde, E ofWarwike, with the crowne therof as also ofGarnesey and Jarsey with other titles of highhonour.

This island hath bene often assaulted by theFrench as in the 1 yeare of Ric:2, the 5 of H:4&the37ofH:8 .

Things conteyned in the mappe of the Whighte:

The Nedles, certayne sharpe rockes at the w.ende of the IslandeWhitewellchyneBrooke

Browndowne

Worder

Wursley SharpenodeTowreFresh-water Rowner

Motteson Ashe Wouluerton BrixstonShorwellNewton

SwaynstonGurner

QuarPauue

ShalfleeteAreton

ye Cowe, E. Cowe NorthwoodcalledW.CowWhip-pinghamye CastleCompton

Wotton

BradingSande heade

Cairebroke

RydeSt. Helene

Newporte

NenwallBens ted

St. Salter Calburne GatcombeKaterynehillChale Kingstone Whitwell Godds hillThorley Nighton St.

LaurenceSt. Boniface

Appledore-combe

Butbridge Binbridge SandhamCastle

(There are no descriptions for Jersey andGuernsey, only an index to the maps.)

The map of the island mentioned above, to-gether with matching small maps of 'Iarsey'and 'Garnesay', served as the right handborder of Norden's beautifully executedmanuscript map of Hampshire in the Queen'svolume, each island set in a barrel shapedcartouche, one above the other. As Nordenobviously did not survey the Island, it seemslikely that for his map he copied that ofBaptista Boazio, the earliest printed map ofthe Island, which had been published in 1591(British Library Maps, c2, a l l ) . Like Boazio'smap, Norden's is small (105 mm x 105 mm)

and full of detail with a heavy load of placenames, but often with variant spellings to theabove text and Boazio's inscriptions. Nordenalso softens the rather exaggerated hills ofBoazio's map. (For a reproduction of bothmaps, see Turley 1976.)

It is not known when Norden's map of'Hamshire' was published; the only extantstate dates from c 1655 but it had obviouslybeen printed extensively before for at this timethe plate was showing clear and heavy signs ofwear. This only known state of the printedmap omitted the border which contained themaps of the three islands (Laxton 1976). It hasbeen suggested that Norden's map of the Isleof Wight was copied by Mercator for his Atlasof 1595 and that, further, all three - Norden's,Mercator's and Boazio's - ultimately derivefrom 'a common original, no longer extant'(Turley 1974, 55). However, given that Nord-en's manuscript was only presented to theQueen with hope of publication under his ownname in that year, it seems more likely thatMercator's was, like Norden's, based on thealready published Boazio map; indeed, Mer-cator's is much closer in execution to Boazio'smap than to Norden's. Like the earlier map,Mercator's island is heavily covered with hills;both exaggerate the undercliff in the south ofthe island which Norden did not show; andMercator showed the same six fire beacons,marked with the same symbol of a ladderedstandard, whilst Norden showed only twobeacons, marked with the 'three prick' markthat he used on his map of Hampshire. All ofthis suggests that both Norden's and Mer-cator's maps were based on Boazio's; Mer-cator's more closely than Norden's. Thereseems no need for the lost 'Ur' map, drawnperhaps, it has been suggested, in connectionwith the defence preparations. against theArmada (Turley 1974, 55).

Certainly, many such maps were drawn toaccompany surveys of the defences of variousparts of England's coast in the 'Armada' yearsand a number have survived (see, for example,British Library Royal 18, D, iii or Add. MS57494, a deputy Lieutenant's survey of theSussex coast). As no part of the coast con-

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186 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

cerned the Privy Council in these years asclosely as Hampshire and the Isle of Wight it isto be expected that some might have survivedand, indeed, in the Public Record Office thereare three such maps. The first dates from 1585and was probably drawn by Richard Popinjay,Surveyor of Works at Portsmouth. He certainlydrew the other two in 1587 and they were sentto the Privy Council by the Earl of Sussex,Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire in March.However, all three were concerned with theSpithcad and Solent coasts and showed onlyvery crude sketch outlines of the northernshore of the Island and could hardly haveaided the cartographers (See French, 'Sea Beg-gars'). However, there are in the BritishLibrary two fine, clear sixteenth centurymanuscript maps of the island which probablypre-date Boazio's map. The first (figs 1 and 2)is bound with a set of pre-production proofs ofSaxon's Atlas of 1579 along with a number ofother manuscript maps (British Library Royal18, D, iii, 17/18). This volume belonged toBurghley and to judge from the annotations inhis hand to nearly all the maps, was well used.This provides a terminus ad quern for theenclosed maps of 1598, the year of Burghley'sdeath, but it is likely that the map of the Isle ofWight, like the others, is very much earlier.

The map is well coloured, at a scale of f inch to the mile. With one exception, all theisland's churches are conventionally shownwith a square tower at the western end toppedwith a spire and a smaller chancel at theeastern end. Only a church marked at Rydediffers from this convention in having no spireor chancel and with its tower at the easternend. However, as Ryde, Ashey, Nunwell andBudbridge did not have churches at this time,these signs must be read as conventional sym-bols for a village rather than a church. Theisland's gunforts are also treated conven-tionally: the Sharpnode bulwark and Yarm-outh Castle are shown as squat cylinders;West Cowes and Sandown forts are slightlymore elaborate. Only Carisbrooke Castle isgiven realistic treatment, the oblong earthworkthat once led to belief in a Roman Carisbrookefort showing clear before its conversion to a

'Italianate' bastioned trace after 1597. How-ever, on the mainland, the forts at Hurst,'Hasellorde' and Southsea are drawn in a verycareful, exact manner, Southsca, finished in1545, meticulously so. Haselworth Castle isshown complete and entire as a tall cylindricaltower surrounded by a lower circular curtainwall, much as shown on the Cowdray Print ofthe battle off Portsmouth in which the Mary Rose was lost in 1545. Haselworth Castle wasreputedly 'beaten downe by King Philip' fornot firing a salute when he sailed past towardshis marriage with Queen Mary although a more likely fate was decommissioning anddecay following a survey of Portsmouth's de-fences made in 1556 (British Library Add. MS16371a; Colvin 1982, 514).

These events suggest that the map wasmade between 1545 and 1556, probably earlywithin that span; the treatment of SouthseaCastle suggests pride in a newly completedwork, and on the island the park to the west ofCarisbrooke is marked as belonging to 'TheKyng' - Edward VI died in 1553. Some of thesettlements have owner's names affixed and allthese are agreeable to these suggested dates.The only doubt is 'Mr Erlesman' at 'Colburne'.Earlesman bought half the manor of Westoveralias Calbourne in 1556; the other half in 1564(Victoria County History, 5, 219). However, itis possible that he was a tenant before hebought the manor.

As well as the forts already mentioned thereappears to be an anonymous squat bulwark atFreshwater Bay although, unlike the othersshown on the map, it does not fly a flag. It ispossible that it represents a store house builtin the 1550s 'for sauingc of Thordinaunceappointed in that place' (Kcnyon 1979, 63). Itis also possible that the curious device atNcttleston Point near St. Helens, apparently a masonry circle, was the small gun positionbuilt sometime between 1539 and 1552. Thearea was vulnerable to foreign incursion as theevents of 1545 had shown (Colvin 1982,549-50). The actual point is still known as'The Old Fort' and was marked as such on a 1769 map of the Isle. A list of charges for theRoyal forts made towards the end of Henry

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KITCHEN: JOHN NORDEN'S 'SPECULUM BRITANNIAF 189

VII I ' s reign and into Edward's refers to workcarried out at St Helens (Kenyon 1979, 76).

The second manuscript map (figs 3 and 4) isin the Cotton collection of the British Library,labelled on the reverse 'Description of the Isleof Wight' . Although it shows towns, villagesand houses of note, it gives great prominenceto the Island's fortifications, even markingWorsley's Tower which was built in the 1520sand by the last years of Elizabeth's reign in a sorry condition. It was not marked on theabove Armada surveys. The map also showsclearly a system of 11 laddered beacons. Themap is 40 cm by 29 cm, the sea coloured with a light blue wash; the land in light green withlight shading for the hills. A 'Scala Miloria'shows a scale of i inch to the mile.

The general shape and configuration of themap in Burghley's atlas clearly had no influ-ence on the Boazio/Mercator/Norden 1590sseries of maps and the Cotton map is evenfurther removed: the hills, waterways, beaconsand, above all, the outline of the coast, differmarkedly from the 1590s series. Although thehills on the Cotton map might be thought to bea more accurate representation of the island's

topography, this cannot be said for the wildsweeping lines of the coast which, curiously,are more closely allied to the well known map'described by William White Gent. Augmen-ted and published by' John Speed in his Theatre in 1611. The coast line in both these mapsexaggerates the depth of bays, prominance ofheadlands and width of waterways in a similarway and suggests a 'mental map ' drawn by eyewithout even the relatively simple surveyingtechniques of the Elizabethan cartographer.Little is known about William White (Turley1974) and even less of the provenance of thismanuscript 'description' map, so the assump-tion of a relationship between them must bespeculative, but could this be the 'description'by 'William White Gent. ' that Speed 'augmen-ted and published'?

A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S

Acknowledgements and thanks are offered to thePublic Record Office and the British Library fortheir permission to reproduce the maps.

REFERENCESCalendar of State Papers, Domestic, 8 & 9.Colvin H M et al 1982 The History of the King's Works, 4

pi 2.Ellis, Sir H (ed) \M0John Norden, Speculum Britanniae:

Pars Essex. This is an edition of Burghley'scopy. The Earl of Essex's is British LibraryAdd MS 33769.

Gough, Richard 1768 British Topography, 1.Historic Manuscript Commission, 7th Report,

Lowndes Mss.Kenyon, J R 1979 'An aspect of the .1559 survey of

the Isle of Wight. . .', Post Medieval Archaeo-logy, 13, 61-77.

Laxton, P 1976 250 Years of Map Making in Hampshire: 1575-1826.

Pollard, A W 1926 'The Unity of John Norden:

surveyor & religious writer', The Library, new series, iii, 233-252.

Ravenhill, W 1972 John Norden's Manuscript Maps of Cornwall and its Nine Hundreds, Exeter.

Turley, R V 1974 'Printed county maps of the Isle ofWight: 1590-1870', Proc 39, 53-64.

British Library Maps, c7, b British Library Maps, c2, a l lBritish Library Add MS 16371aBritish Library Add MS 31853British Library Add MS 57494British Library Cott Aug, I, i, 28Public Record Office MPF 208 & SP 12/182/41Public Record Office MPF 134 & SP 12/199/23Public Record Office MPF 135 & SP 12/199/24

Author: F Kitchen, 153 Greenways Crescent, Shoreham by Sea, BN43 6HP

© Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society