Add MS 52522

COLOURED MANORIAL MAP OF SHERBORNE, co. Dorset, and neighbour-hood; circa 1569-1574. No cartographer given. No date given, but the pattern of ownership fits circa 1569-1574, since the manor of Purse Caundle, here marked 'Landes of Mr [Christopher] Hattone', was granted by the Crown to Hatton, 12 Eliz. I [1569/70] (see J. Hutchins, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset, ed. W. Shipp and J. W. Hodson, 1861-73, iv, p. 143) and the manor of Hillfield, here marked 'Landes of Mr [George] Trenchar[d]', was sold by Trenchard to Arthur Cosens, 1574 (Hutchins, iv, p. 501). Scale bar of one 'long' mile of 7,131 feet to 132mm., divided into 1000 with the note, 'Passus Quorum uniusquisque continet secundum nostram computationem, pedes .7. cum 16dis/122 vnius pedis, Quasi R[egula?]'. [1:16466]. Actual scale varies between 1:31680 and 1:18102. See P. D. A. Harvey, 'An Elizabethan Map of Manors in North Dorset', B.M.Q., xxix, 1965, pp. 82-4, n. 5. See also H. M. T. Cobbe, 'Four manuscript maps recently acquired by the British Museum', Journal of the Society of Archivists, iv, 1973, pp. 646-52. No compass-points, but south at top. Bounded by the manors of Poyntington, Yeovil, Woolcombe and Pulham. Each manor is coloured either in blue, green, yellow, purple, brick red, or dark pink, or is left uncoloured. Names of owners are given for nearly all the manors except those, including Sherborne itself, belonging to the Bishop of Salisbury, for whom the map appears to have been commissioned. Executed in the 'bird's-eye-view' style characteristic of maps of the period. Gives much topographical detail, including hedges and divisions.

Names of manors and villages in the same ink as the map, and in an italic hand, apparently that of the cartographer. Names of landowners, etc., added in a secretary hand and in a darker ink. Endorsement: 'Sum'[set] mann[ors?]', now obscured by the linen backing. See Harvey, p. 82. The 'Description of certain Mannours in Somersetsh[ire]' in Royal MS. App. 86, f. 95, a list of Royal maps, circa 1661-1666, has been identified with this map. See R. A. Skelton, 'The Royal Map Collections', B.M.Q., xxvi, 1962-3, pp. 1-6. Apparently passed to the Royal Collection when Henry Cotton, Bishop of Salisbury, granted the Sherborne estates of the Bishopric to the Queen, 1599. See W. B. Wildman, A Short History of Sherborne, 1930, p. 171. Presumably transferred from the Royal collection to that of George Legge, 1st Baron Dartmouth, Master-General of the Ordnance to James II. Skelton, p. 2. Subsequently in the Dartmouth papers. Sotheby's sale-cat., 8-10 Mar. 1948, lot 468. Acquired by Cyril Kenney, F.S.A., F.R.I.C.S., aft. 1948. Shown by him in an exhibition organized by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in 1953 as no. 14: 'Manorial map of Sherborne and surrounding country ca. 1580'. Skelton, n. 19. Sotheby's sale-cat., 2 Nov. 1964, lot 352.

On four sheets of vellum stuck together, now backed with linen. 830 x 885mm. Surrounded by a black border of 21mm. Pen and ink and coloured wash.