John Kirby (1690 – 13 December 1753) was an English land surveyor and

topographer Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary scienc ...

. His book ''The Suffolk Traveller'', first published in 1735, was the first single county road-book.John Blatchly, ''John Kirby's Suffolk: His Maps and Roadbooks'' (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2004) Kirby lived in Wickham Market,

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 ...

and spent three years between 1732 and 1734 surveying the entire county. For part of this project he was accompanied by Nathaniel Bacon. In 1736 he published a large-scale map of Suffolk. Subscribers to this received a copy of his book as a free gift. A further large scale map was published the following year.

Life

Kirby, born in 1690 at

Halesworth Halesworth is a market town, civil parish and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in north-eastern Suffolk, England. The population stood at 4,726 in the 2011 Census. It lies south-west of Lowestoft, on a tribut ...

, Suffolk, was originally a schoolmaster at Orford in that county, and afterwards occupied a mill at Wickham Market. In 1714, he married Alice Brown. Kirby died on 13 December 1753 at Ipswich, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Mary at Tower, Ipswich. His portrait, by

Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough (; 14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists o ...

, R.A., was by 1868 in the possession of the Rev. Kirby Trimmer.

''The Suffolk Traveller''

In 1735, he published at Ipswich, in

duodecimo Paper size refers to standardized dimensions for sheets of paper used globally in stationery, printing, and technical drawing. Most countries adhere to the ISO 216 standard, which includes the widely recognized A series (including A4 paper) ...

, ''The Suffolk Traveller; or, a Journey through Suffolk,'' a road-book with

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic si ...

notices, from an actual survey which he made of the whole county in 1732, 1733, and 1734. Prefixed is a small map of the county. A new edition was published by subscription, with 'many alterations and large additions by several hands,' in 1764, 8vo, London, under the editorship of the Rev. Richard Canning, of which a reprint was issued from Woodbridge about 1800, containing some trifling additions, and a fourth edition, with additions, appeared as ''A Topographical . . . Description of the County of Suffolk,'' 8vo, Woodbridge, 1829, with Ebden's map in place of Kirby's. A ''Supplement to the Suffolk Traveller'' was published in 1844 by Augustine Page (cf. his Introduction, p. vi). In 1736 Kirby issued ''A Map of the County of Suffolk,'' illustrated with coats of arms and views. An improved edition, engraved by John Ryland, was published on a larger scale in 1766 by his sons

Joshua Kirby Joshua Kirby (1716 – 1774), often mistakenly called John Joshua Kirby, was an English 18th-century landscape painter, engraver, writer, draughtsman and architect famed for his publications and teaching on linear perspective based on Brook T ...

and William Kirby.For a summary of the family of John Kirby, see John Freeman, ''Life of the Rev. William Kirby, M.A.'' (Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1852
Chapter 1

References

;Attribution:

External links

The Suffolk traveller by Kirby, John, 1690-1753
archive.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Kirby, John 1690 births 1753 deaths 18th-century English people English surveyors English topographers English male writers People from Halesworth People from Suffolk Coastal (district)