( 247 )
EARLY KENT MAPS.
(SIXTEENTH CENTURY)
BY GREVILE M. LIVETT, B.A., F.S.A.
(Hon. Canon of Rochester.)
INTRODUCTION.
"A CARDE (or Cha.rte) of this Shyre" is mentioned by
William Lambarde in his Perambulation o.f J{ent. The book
was first published in 1576, but a dedicatory "epistle",
addressed to Thomas Wotton, Esq., in the autograph MS.,
which in 1924 came into the possession of the Kent Archooologica,
1 Society and is preserved in the Maidstone Museum,
bears the date "this last day of January, 1570 "-i.e.,
according to the reformed calendar, the year 1571. The MS.
shows many subsequent alterations and additions in the
author's handwriting, and these are incorporated in the
printed book, but as the mention of the Carde is in the original
draft it must have been in existence at least as early as 1570.
Recent writers have suggested reasons for identifying with it
one or other of the four early maps that are described in this
Paper. In the present writer's opinion the identifications
are unsound. I think Lambarde's Carde is completely lost.
1. An undated autograph map of Kent, signed
" Robertus Gloverus, Somersett, fecit," and inserted as a
frontispiece into a MS. copy of the Perambuta,tion. This
MS. also lies in the Maidstone Museum. Signed " Robertus
Gloverus, Somerset, scribebat," it was written (in beautiful
script) possibly as early as 1571 (in which year Glover became
Somerset Herald), and certainly before Lambarde made any
additions to his original draft. The map, drawn to a scale
of about l½ in. to 10 map-miles, is coloured and measures
9-l by 6¼ in. The accompanying illustration (Plate I) is a
collotype reproduction of a photograph kindly taken for the
248 EARLY KENT MAPS.
purpose by Mr. C. E. Fisher, a member of the staff of the
Maidstone Museum.
2. Christopher Saxton's map of the four south-eastern
counties, engraved by Remigius Hogenberg and published
in 1575. Included by Saxton in the collection of his maps
of all the counties of England and Wales with a general map
of Anglia in a volume in 1579. Drawn to a scale of about
2-} in. to 10 miles, it measures nearly 22 by 16 in. including
a border of ¼ in. The Kent portion is reproduced herewith
(Plate IT) from an uncoloured copy in the British Museum.
3. An undated, anonymous map of "The Shyre of
Kent, Divided into the five Lathes therof," with the adjoining
portions of the three neighbouring counties, evidently
based on Saxton's map aforesaid. The earliest of several
issues is in the possession of the Royal Geographical Society.
Drawn to a scale of 2½in, to 10 miles,it measures 14 by 7gin.,
including a¼ in. border. Probable date, 1577. A reproduction
appeared in Arch. Oant. Vol. XXXVIII (1926), to
illustrate the Paper in which our member Mr. E. G. Box
suggested that it might be the "Carde " referred to by
Lambarde. By permission of the R.G.S. it is repeated here
(Plate VI), for the purpose of convenient comparison with
Saxton's map, by means of an electrotype made in 1924 for
Dr. F. W. Cock, F.S.A., and kindly lent by him. Mr. Box
has called it " the rare map ", but as two or three other
copies have since come to light I shall venture to re-name it
the ' anon ' map.
4. Phil Symonson's " New Description of Kent ",
engraved by Charles Whitwell, dated 1596. A large map,
drawn to the scale of nearly 5! in. to 10 miles; with a
½in.border it measures nearly 31 by 21 in. The late Hon.
Henry Hannen published a small-scale reproduction of an
early issue in his possession to illustrate a paper that he
contributed to Arch. Oant., XXX (1914), when the present
writer was Editor. The block is missing, but fortunately I
possess a copy of the photograph from which it was made,
and from it another block has been made for the purpose of
EARLY KENT MAPS. 249
this paper (Plate VII). A full-size reproduction, printed
in 1914 by the Ordnance Survey, may be purchased at a
small price.
I.
As explained more fully in a footnote1 Lambarde's
original purpose was to compile a much more extensive work,
dealing with the whole country, of which his description of
Kent should be the :first instalment. The title-pages of the
successive editions of The Perambulation contain no indication
of such intention. That of the :first edition (1576)
announces it as
Conteining the description, Hystorie, and Customes of that
Shyre. Collected and written (for the most part) in the
yeare 1570. By William Lambarde of Lincolnes Ione Gent.
and nowe increased by the addition of some things which
the Author himselfe hath observed since that time.
The title-page of the second edition, published in 1596, says:
" :first published in the yeare 1576 and now
increased and altered after the Author's owne last copie."
The following quotation, which is chosen for its mention
of the "Carde", is taken from the MS., and shows in Italic
1 William Lambarde, born in 1636, began his literary work by a
collection of Anglo-Saxon laws published in 1568. He then began to collect
materials for a TopographicaU Dlctionarie of the antiquities of the whole
realm. This ambitious design began to take shape in the MS. dated 1570,
which the author intended to publish without delay, a.s indicated y the
inclusion of the dedicatory " Epistle " addressed to Thomas Wotton {sherifi
of Kent in 1658 and again in 1579) "from Seintcleres, this last day of
January, 1670." It begins with a map entitled Angliae Heptarchia,
followed by The Descr·iption of the Engliah Heptarchie, or seven KingdomB,
and other genera.I matter-" things all handled a.a an induction to the
Topographica.ll Diotioru\rie." Then {as on p. 6 of the '76 edition of the
Perambulation) the author turns to the Description and HisUn-ie of the Shyre
of Kent, beginning with an explanation of his reason for the choice of that
"Country" for the first instalment of his big work. The '76 a.nd later
editions contain a letter of commendation addressed by Thomas 'Wootton
to his fellow Countrymen at large, and especially to'the Gentlemen of Kent,
dated 16th of April, 1576. Lamba.rde abandoned his larger project on
learning that William Camden had for some years been engaged on a similar
work, which eventually issued in the publication of the first edition of his
Britannia in 1686 and the 6th (greatly enlarged) edition of 1607. In his
own time La.mbarde was, perhaps, best known for his Eirenarcha, a, work
upon the office of the Justices of the Peace, published in 1681. He became
Keeper of the records at the Rolls Chapel in 1597 and died in 1601.
250 EARLY KENT MAPS.
type the author's additions to his original draft. In the
1576 edition it is printed (p. 177) with a few changes in spelling
and the substitution of" breaketh out "for" originateth"
and of " Lineham " [Lenham] for " Hartisham " [Harrietsham].
Some of the spelling is changed in the Glover copy
also, but, as I have previously remarked, that copy contains
none of the additions.
The fourth and last [ of the brooks that runne into the
Medway] originateth out of the ground at Hartisham, washeth
the Castle of Leedes, a little from whence it receaveth the
small water of Holingborne, and in companie of the same
passeth towa.rde Maidstone: at which place (as I thinke)
the name of Medway first beginneth, the rather because it
hathe there receaved all his helpes and crossing the Shyre
as it weare in the midst1 from thence in one entier Chanel
labourith to finde out the Sea. For otherwise the Ryver
itself e is properly called Egle, or Eyle, as of which bothe Eilesford
and y• ca.stle of Alingto (or rather Eylingto) doe take their
names.2
li I faile in this derivation the fault for the first parte
is his that made the Carde of this Shyre, and the the follie
ys mine that followe him ; but the truthe notwithstandinge
ys easily to be founde out by any man that wil make
investigation and examine yt, and y" traspass also herein y"
more veniall for that wee gooe not about to shadowe yt.
By adding the short passage about the Egle and Aylesford
the author unintentionally broke the continuity of what
follows with what precedes it. The derivation of which
1 Medway : "the midiway division of the county" is a plausible expla.nat,
ion of this river-name. Modern authorities, however, prefer a derivation
that implies "a meadow-river," "the river that flows through low-lying
land," (aa is the case with the Medway in long stretehes of its course), from
mrecl, "meadow," and Wa3fl, "water," "wave," or wagan, to flow. The
second syllable occurs as a river-name in the Wye of Derbyshire and the
Wey in Hants, Dorset an -"lf'f'tr-
1,,..,. ..t-,i,v.·1<-,,'l"''i6- -k,,,.,k,,/ •u r/,1nt
"-4. ...... s ... ";.,iri... c,.,,""'.r,,.,.:r "l'J'1ltrl'" gr. ._ .. .,,
""'' ,+.,.,,. •li.,J#,.:f,_ •z-/,em, 0/'fiU ,,__,
r--IU J'a1wl,;,J,.-·.lfl.. • ' r·•
. Sout/JJc,.•i.1 ('f""-' ,I,',,, "'!}t; -(.i.,;,,,,,;, ,ltr.-'-'r , ,
'.rkHr IMJ;,r,,. c;-,a,m nni•'-' . .
.. "'J''"-'"' 0,,,1d11 IUCt'Utl•n• JI/ ,r,·,.·/:y,,u· )
ru-.c1rwc,-J,.
, . h,,,.
Sul'"l:l (.-,,;. . , inrola· .lint _'11..21m·. ....... .. 1-•)
Ito«, Oppukt •"CIJt11rut ·O·r«1:fjt,•· p<>r,cl,.,Ju -I•·
EARLY KENT l\IAPS. PLi\.TE III.
DETAILS OF SAXTON.
EARLY KENT MAPS. 263
Something of the same kind happened to the five paragraphs
which contain details of the four counties and London
in the lower panel (Fig. 2). In this case, however, it appears
that the erased inscription was repeated word for word in
slightly different form for re-arrangement, not for correction,
of the text. This re-engraving was done before the Burghley
impression was taken: it seems strange, however, that in
that copy one can detect no sign of the erased inscription,
though indications of it remain more or less distinct in the
later impressions. They can be quite plainly seen near the
bottom of the panel, where the last line of the partially erased
inscription appears under the last re-engraved line somewhat
as follows:
habet intra muros eoolesias parochiales · llO ·
extra vero intraq' libertates · I O ·
paroohiales·IIO·extra vero intraq' libertates·IO·
In t-9-e original arrangement the lettering was larger, and
there was more space between the lines and less between the
paragraphs.
For the benefit of members who do not read Latin the
first paragraph may be translated thus :
Kent, besides the metropolitical city of England (which
in British times was called Kairkent, in Roman Dorobernia,
in Saxon Canterbury), has also the city of Rochester, 17
market towns, and 398 parish churches.
and the last paragraph thus :
London (,vhich is the chief city of England and a county
in itself) was anciently called J.IUiJ,st,owne, Trinobantum and
Troya Nova, and has within its walls 110 churches, but
without and within, 10 liberties.
Seekford must have supplied the engraver with the
particulars set out in these paragraphs. Whence did he get
the name Kairkent? Dr. Haverfield tells us that the
Trinovantes were a powerful British tribe dwelling N and NE
of London, and that their name played a great part in
mediaeval legend, where it was interpreted as Troy N ovant,
264 EARLY KENT MAPS.
the 'New Troy'. Ludswwne also is mediaeval, the Town of
King Lud !
As to the map, something has already been said of it
and more will be added in the next section of the Paper when
the anon map will be compared with it. The technical
skill and beauty of Hogenberg's work could not be excelled.
The cursive lettering is remarkably clear, and the capitals
show a pleasing variety of form-note, for example, the
initial H of the names near the S boundary. The sitesymbol
of the villages is a small circle attached to a churchtower
surmounted by a tall and delicately-engraved spire.
Artistic feeling is evinced also in the ships and monsters
which adorn the sea and in the romantic incident portrayed
at the side of the lower panel ; but the need of economy
has cut them off from the map as illustrated in Plate II.
It remains to note that the water-mark, as seen in my own
copy of the map, is a bunch of grapes near the edge of the
paper, not unlike No. 61 (dated 1541) in the folding plate of
a Paper in the Geog. Jour. for May, 1924, by Mr. Edward
Heawood, who tells us it originated in Italy and spread
northwards.
For further information about Saxton the reader is
referred to a paper contributed by Sir George Fordham in
1928 to the Thoresby Society's Miscellanea (Vol. XXVIII,
1928), entitled Saxton of Dunningley (in Yorkshire) : his
life and work. It may be added that Saxton obtained in
1579 a grant of arms, three chaplets on a bend gules, with a
crest of an arm and hand holding a pair of compasses slightly
open. In 1583 he published, still under Seckford's patronage,
a large general map of England and Wales, engraved apparently
by Augustine Ryther, of which the British Museum possesses
one of only two extant copies-twenty sheets bound in a
single volume, the copper-plates measuring 17¼ by lli in.
Seekford died early in 1588, but Saxton continued his work
as surveyor, printer, and bookseller for many years before
retiring to his native village, where he died in 1610 or 1611.
To conclude with the words of Mr. Lynam : Saxton's Atlas
is not merely a valuable document for the historian, the
EARLY KENT MA.PS. 265
antiquary, the student of place-names and the connoisseur of
engraving: it represents the most complete survey of England
and Wales carried out before 1791, when the Ordnance Survey
was founded.
IV.
We have now to consider the anonymous and undated
map entitled The Shyre of Kent, Divided into the five Lathe,s
therof, reproduced in Plate VI. When Mr. Box published
his paper in the 1926 volume of Arch. Gant. only three copies
of this "rare map," as he called it, were known, representing
three successive issues printed from different states of the
same copper-plate. We are concerned now only with the
first issue, of which the R.G.S. owns a copy. Its watermark
is a tall pot with a fleuron on the top and on the bulb
a band bearing some letters which are difficult to decipher.
A similar mark, common in England in the last quarter of the
sixteenth century, is figured No. 109 in Mr. Heawood's aforementioned
plate, and dated 1580.1
I propose here to give reasons, amounting I think to
definite proof, that the anon map was based on Saxton's
1575 map, and, that being so, cannot be Lambarde's carde.
We have already seen that in 1577 there arose the likelihood
of a demand for separate county maps and that in July of
that year Saxton was granted an exclusive right to the printing
and sale of such maps. It must therefore be concluded
that the anon map was engraved under his personal direction,
for the purpose of meeting such demand by a small handy map
of the shire, divested of all but the adjoining parts of the three
neighbouring counties and improved by showing its division
into lathes. The scale is slightly smaller than that of Saxton's
map, but the difference is so little that a tracing of the one
can be placed over the other with only slight movement for
purposes of comparison. I have done this to compare the
1 Mr. Ree.wood de.tea the 2nd issue 1620-30. A reproduction of the
latest of the three editions (1720-30), which was enriched by the insertion
of roads, was published by Mr. Box to illustrate a further contribution to
Arclt. Gant. in Vol. XXXIX (1927).
266 EARLY KENT MAPS,
coast-line, the course of the rivers Medway and Stour, the
palisaded parks and woods, and the groups of hill-mounds
and trees. The correspondence is practically exact, even
to the number and relative position of the mounds and trees
in a group. The same may be said of the single trees scattered
over the map, except that many of those in the lower part of
the county in the 1575 map are absent from the anon map.
The border, a banded cord of pointed leaves, is the same in
both maps. The correspondence is seen again in the sites
of the towns and villages, whether correctly or incorrectly
plotted: for instance, Waltham is placed too near the Stour,
and Crundale nearly due south instead of W by N of it.
There can be no doubt that the anon map is a copy of Saxton's
and that the engraver followed closely the style of Hogenberg's
script. The cursive lettering is markedly similar. Attention
has already been drawn to the variety of the form of the
capital H in certain names in Saxton's map: apart from an
added flourish in one of them those names have in each case
the same form of initial capital in the anon map. A special
feature in both maps is the omission of the a in the final
syllable of names ending in ham and its appearance in
decorated form above the m. The only difference between
the two styles lies in the place-symbols. The anon symbol,
much inferior to Hogenberg's, consists of a little dotted circle
on the lower part of a squat church-tower that leans out
of the perpendicular and is finished at the top by a strong
horizontal line which extends beyond the sides of the tower
and has rising from it a short line to represent a spire, and
it has also the addition of a side chapel or aisle. But this
difference is not sufficient to counteract the significance of the
many features that are similar in the two maps.
Two other maps in Saxton's atlas have exactly the same
symbol as the anon map: the Northants-Beds-CambridgeHunts
group of 1576 and the Worcester map of 1577 ; and
both of them, like the anon map, lack the names of the author
and the engraver. These facts suggest (l} that all three were
engraved by the same artist and (2) that the date of the
anon map lies soon after July 20th, 1577, when Saxton
EARLY KENT MAPS. 267
obtained his exclusive rights of sale, but before engravers
were instructed to put his name on the maps.
To resume the comparison of our two maps, the anon
and Saxton's Kent. A great majority of the place-names
are spelt alike, some of them very differently from the spelling
in such other early maps as Phil Symonson's 1596 map
(PS.}; Norden's (N.} in Camden's Britannia, 1607 ; and
Speed's (Sp.), 1610. I will cite a few examples:
Pevenburye al's Pemburye-Pepenbery in PS. and N.;
Oteri'den al's Othm-Ottham or Otham in the others;
Fordishr--Fordwich in PS. and Sp., Fordunch in N. ;
Wimlingole-Winimsgole in PS., Wimlingswold in N.,
Wymingswold in Sp.;
W illingsborowe-W illesborow in the other three ;
W oumer and Waumere Castle-Walmer in the others ;
Perlesford and Averidge-Padlesworth and Acryse in
the others.
· This identity of spelling appears the more remarkable when
it is realized that no uniformity was practised or aimed at in
mediaeval literature : in one page of Lambarde's Perambulation
Pennenden is spelt in four different ways. Is it likely
that, as has been suggested, Saxton and the anon map
engraver were each independently, and with the same
unusual care, basing his map on some earlier map which has
been lost, whether it were Lambarde's " Carde " or some
other 1
We can see the engraver of the anon map at work in
his task of copying Saxton's map: two examples will suffice.
When he reached the Isle of Grain, where in Saxton's map
the three words GRANE INSUL: Greane occur one above
another. Having copied the first two he came to the third
and found it spelt differently from the first, so he returned
to the first and inserted an E above it to make them agree.
A more instructive example is the illustration in the accompanying
Plate V, in which Fig. 1 is a tracing from a half-inch
Ordnance map, and Figs. 2 and 3 are photographs, enlarged
268 EARLY KENT MAPS.
to approximately the same scale, of Saxton's and the anon
map respectively. In Figs. 2 and 3 there is practically no
difference in the plotting of the place-symbols. It may be
noticed that Bunnyngton (Bonington), which should have
been plotted between Bilsington and Aurst (Hurst), appears
down in the marsh below Aurst: and that Orlanston (Orlestone),
which should have been plotted about two miles
WNW of Roclcinge, was put about six miles S by W of it.
(But it is fair to say that Saxton's work was generally more
accurate than this case suggests.) Now Hogenberg, when
he had plotted his Bilsington symbol and engraved the name
under it, found he had not left room for the complete symbol
for Rockinge : he was therefore content to indicate its position
by its little circle only, which appears just above the
lower turn of the long s of his Bilsington. And having
engraved the Bunnyngton symbol he left an unusual space
below it so as to avoid running the name into the symbol of
Bowermershe (Burmarsh). Such then was the picture the
engraver of the anon map had to deal with in making his
copy. Some features, such as his omission of the r in
Shadderherst and of the final e of Bowermershe suggest that
he was working hurriedly: he engraved his Bilsington
without detecting the little circle, and seeing the symbol of
Bunnyngton standing ' high and dry ' without name ( as it
seemed to him at the moment) he put Roclcing in the space
under it. Then he noticed his mistake, and without troubling
himself to erase and correct it he engraved Bonington (sic)
immediately under his Roclcing, squeezing it in so as to avo ·d
interference with it and with his Orlanston previously
engraved; and then he tried, not very successfully, to complete
the symbol under the first syllable of Bilsington. The
reader may compare these positions with those in Symonson's
map reproduced in Plate IV, Fig. 3, as well as with the
Ordnance map.
In spite of such mistakes it is evident that the engraver
of the anon map made most of his copy with some care ;
but he also made intentional additions and omissions. He
distinguished the two places named Boughton (Bocton in
/ig.1 ftolH/
.J>axtoM Somuset.f
ig.r.23.4-j'roHV
S!:fl?WltSO/tS .;teltb-
EARLY KENT MAPS
LJIA;t;e,N
A.C.XJ.IX
A.C. XLIX. EARLY KEXT .!\lAPS.
DETAILS OF AXTON AND PHIL SYMONSON.
PLATE IV.
Fig. l. After an Ordnance Map.
Fig. 2. Enlarged from Saxton.
Fig. 3. Enlarged from Anon.
DETAILS OF SAXTON AND ANON.
T'LA'l'ls V.
EARLY KENT MAPS. 269
later maps) by the addition of Aloph to the one near Wye;
and the other two in Aylesford lathe by the addition of
mwrwhel (for Monohelsea) to the one and mal (for Malherbe)
to the other. He corrected Hitchm into Higham, and here
and there he added _a name omitted by Saxton, such as
East Sutton : but he failed to mark Pluckley (north of
Smarden). He made a mistake in writing Nope for Hope
(near Romney). Riohborough seems to have been a trouble
to Saxton or his engraver as well as to the engraver of the
anon map : the former spelt it Ratsboro, and the latter
Rptsboro with an e added above the p. With regard to the
river names, anon omits Saxton's Ravensbourn flu and inserts
all the other river names in different places from Saxton's,
probably t o present them more clearly to the eye.
The author of a county map, whether early or late,
usually omitted details of the portion of any neighbouring
county that fell within the limits of bis plate, contenting
himself with writing" Parte of" such and such county. The
engraver of the anon map, however, gives almost full details,
again following Saxton's map of the four counties. But
here and there he shows a little less care : for instance, no
place-name is attached to his symbols of Saxton's Croydon
and Addiscombe, NW of Addingtonr-an omission which was
corrected in the later issues of the map ; and below Rye
the coast line is carelessly drawn and Saxton's Rye, Haven
and Winchelseye are omitted. Mr. Box has drawn attention
to some other differences.
The most important of anon's additions is the
division of the shire into lathes, shown by dotted lines.
Except in the case of the Lathe of Saint Augustines he found
convenient spaces in which to add the names of the lathes,
and also The Wealde. He also drew a dotted line dividing
the lathe of Shipway into its two bailiwicks of Shipway and
Stowting, without naming them. He made a few deviations
from accuracy, e.g. he drew a pronounced eastward loop
to include Oharinge in the lathe of Ailisforde instead of in
that of Scray; and Appledowre and Kenerdi'gton, which
should also appear in Scray, he included in Shipway. On
270 EARLY KENT MAPS.
the intricate history and mapping of the lathes and the Weald
or "Seven Hundreds", the reader is referred to Captain
H. W. Knocker's paper on "The Valley of Holmesdale "
in Arch. Gant., Vol. XXXI.
It may be left to the interested reader to carry further
the comparison of the two maps. If, as I contend, the
anon map is a copy (with certain errors and omissions,
additions and improvements) of the Kent portion of Saxton's
map of the four counties, as engraved by Hogenberg in 1575
(and not of any supposed earlier map of the county by Saxton
or other author), then the claim that it was Lambarde's
Carde of this Shyre falls to the ground-a claim based upon
the simple fact that " it, and no other early map of Kent,
has the name of Medway in the position indicated by
Lambarde," namely five miles below Maidstone. By the
way, ought not the passage to run" No other known map" 1
Mr. Box calls to his aid the name of Northmouthe given
to the northern outlet of the Wantsum in both the anon
map and Saxton's, and" in those two early maps only". This
name is interesting quite apart from the question under
review. It should be noticed that with that name in both
maps there is linked another-Newhaven. Now in the
Saxon period, as earlier, the waters of the Wantsum formed
a wide estuary. Shipping on its way from Sandwich to
London sailed along its western bank and out under the
walls of Reculver fort, i.e. by a north mouth. In the course
of time a gradual silting up of the estuary made that channel
difficult: a sea-wall was built and the shipping diverted to
a more navigable channel about a mile to the east, as shown
in both our maps. To its exit there the old name of The
N orthmouthe was transferred, but it also became known as
N ewhaven, a name which it acquired in reference to the
decaying "sure haven of Stourmouth ". Both names were
in use when our two maps were made. Newhaven, however,
seems to have become the name more commonly used, as it
appears alone in the slightly later maps of Symonson, Norden
and Speed. But the old name was not altogether lost,
for it appears as late as 1717 in a map by S. Parker that hangs
EARLY KENT MAPS. 271
in the vestry of :Minster church; and it is the subject of
discussion, as Mr. Box reminds us, in John Battely's
Antiquitates Rutupinae, written in Latin and published in
1711. Battely (p. 12) js combating a notion, entertained by
both Somner and Gibson, that N orthmutha was at the mouth
of the Medway (in Me.
