John Speed's Ipswich is a graphic account of the town of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

created by

John Speed John Speed (1551 or 1552 – 28 July 1629) was an English cartographer, chronologer and historian of Cheshire origins.; superseding . The son of a citizen and Merchant Taylor in London,"Life of John Speed", ''The Hibernian Magazine, Or, Compe ...

in conjunction with the Dutch engraver,

Jodocus Hondius Jodocus Hondius (Latinized version of his Dutch name: ''Joost de Hondt'') (17 October 1563 – 12 February 1612) was a Flemish and Dutch engraver and cartographer. He is sometimes called Jodocus Hondius the Elder to distinguish him from h ...

, in 1610. It was featured as an inset for his map of the county of Suffolk, published in ''Theatre of The Empire of Great Britaine''. It is the earliest extant map of Ipswich and features many buildings of the late medieval period, whilst at the same time showing streets laid out in a grid pattern which has largely been retained into the twenty first century.

Elements of John Speed's Ipswich

John Speed's map contains different key elements:

"Orwell flu."

The river labelled "Orwell flu." has been known as the

River Gipping The River Gipping is the source river for the River Orwell in the county of Suffolk in East Anglia, England, which is named from the village of Gipping, and which gave its name to the former Gipping Rural District. It rises near Mendlesham, Men ...

or Little Gipping.

Parish churches

Ipswich was divided into four wards, each further subdivided into

parishes A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

centred on a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

, as follows. Each ward had a

headborough In English law, the term headborough, head-borough, borough-head, borrowhead, or chief pledge, referred historically to the head of the legal, administrative, and territorial unit known as a tithing, which sometimes, particularly in Kent, Surrey a ...

who was the leet officer for the ward.

Other religious buildings

* Ipswich Greyfriars * Ipswich Blackfriars

Town gates

Other buildings

* Poorhouses (mislabbelled Y, actually Z): These are the Tooley's and Smart's Almshouses. These had been founded in 1550 by

Henry Tooley Henry Tooley (d. 1551) was a Suffolk, England merchant. Alive during the Tudor period, by the time of his death he was one of the richest businessmen in the town of Ipswich. He was closely associated with the fellow merchant and Member of Parliame ...

with a further endowment provided by William Smarte ( MP) in 1591. They were rebuilt as a whole in 1846.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Speed's Ipswich History of Ipswich