Ipswich by John Speed, 1610 (1850 facsimile)

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

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

created by

John Speed John Speed (1551 or 1552 – 28 July 1629) was an English cartographer, chronologer and historian of Cheshire origins.S. Bendall, 'Speed, John (1551/2–1629), historian and cartographer', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (OUP 2004/ ...

in conjunction with the dutch engraver,

Jodocus Hondius Jodocus Hondius (Latinized version of his Dutch language, Dutch name: ''Joost de Hondt'') (17 October 1563 – 12 February 1612) was a Flemish people, Flemish and Dutch engraving, engraver and cartographer. He is sometimes called Jodocus Hon ...

, 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.

Elments 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. The name is unrelated to the ...

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 m ...

centred on a parish church, 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 ...

who was the leet officer for the ward.

Other religious buildings

Ipswich Greyfriars Ipswich Greyfriars was a mediaeval monastic house of Friars Minor (Franciscans) founded during the 13th century in Ipswich, Suffolk. It was said conventionally to have been founded by Sir Robert Tibetot of Nettlestead, Suffolk (before 1230–1298), ...

Ipswich Blackfriars Ipswich Blackfriars was a medieval religious house of Friars-preachers (Dominicans) in the town of Ipswich, Suffolk, England, founded in 1263 by King Henry III and dissolved in 1538. It was the second of the three friaries established in the tow ...

Town gates

Other buildings

* Poorhouses (mislabbelled Y, actually Z): These are the

Tooley's and Smart's Almshouses Tooley's and Smart's Almshouses are Grade II listed almshouses in Ipswich which were founded in 1550 by Henry Tooley with a further endowment provided by William Smarte William Smarte (ca. 1530 – 23 September 1599), of Ipswich, Suffolk, was an ...

. 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 Parliamen ...

with a further endowment provided by

William Smarte William Smarte (ca. 1530 – 23 September 1599), of Ipswich, Suffolk, was an English merchant and landowner. William father was Richard Smart(e), a draper in the parish of St Mary-le-Tower, Ipswich, who had held the political office of Bailiff ...

( MP) in 1591. They were rebuilt as a whole in 1846.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Speed's Ipswich History of Ipswich