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The
1610 plan made by John Speed of the East and North Ridings
is a wonderful window on the early 17th century.
It shows the centres of population, the enclosed
(deer) parks, churches and other man made features.
It also includes the street plans of Kingston upon
Hull and Richmond together with their fortifications.
One feature of this plan and other Speed plans are
the coats of arms included which on this one, according
to Speed are the “arms of such noble families, as have
bourn the Dignitie of Earles of Richmond and Holderness
since the Normans conquest.”
These
pages hope to provide a closer view of those coats of arms
as shown by Speed, items which to anyone who has some form
of copy of the plan can seldom resist the temptation to
colourise them. It
has been necessary to make some corrections where an obvious
original error has occurred, but, where no indication of
colours has been shown by Speed, these have been left as
speed portrayed them.
These few small blanks do not detract from the overall
impression of the shields. Similarly, Speed makes no mention
of chronology; consequently, none has been made by me.
The main thrust of these images is to provide full
colour renditions of those shields shown on the plan, rather
than to make a detailed study of the earldoms of Richmond
and Holderness. Other
coats of arms shown on the plan are those of king James
I of England VI of Scotland, the towns of Hull and Richmond,
and that of Speed himself.
Original publishers information printed on the plan
states “Performed by John Speede (sic).
And are to be sold by Roger Rea the Elder and younger
at the Golden Croffe (sic) – Cross – in Cornhill
against the Exchange.”
Thumbnails
are here provided for ease of view – for the detailed close-ups
of each shield simply click on the shield, or name, of interest.
In two pages here, the earls of Richmond are displayed
first. The
full plan is a colour facsimile as provided by http://www.maphisteria.com/speed_maps.htm
, used here without permission, but hopefully, that place
would not have any problems with me borrowing their image.
The monochrome facsimile I have, was made as part
of a map kit by Hull City Libraries (and which I think,
is still available – See Links page).
No responsibly
it taken by me for any errors, all possible care has been
taken to ensure accuracy, however, due to the attempt to
be true to the spirit of John Speed, some errors may have
crept in. Without
a major research project into both earldoms, I cannot say
with certainty that all the personalities, and their coats
of arms are correct except that they appear on Speed’s plan.
Any complaints should be directed to John Speed Esq.
J
The arms of Richmond an Hull however are accurate,
these are very easy to verify as both communities still
use them in one form or another.
Richard
Hayton
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