A PREVIOUSLY UNRECORDED PLATE. This map falls into a genre known as Adams-derivative straight line distance maps. John Adams was from Shropshire and after moving to London became a barrister in the Inner Temple. It seems that for a while at least he flourished as a surveyor or civil engineer from circa 1672 to 1688. In this career he saw the need for a large distance map of the market towns of England and Wales. The stimulus for this was a meeting with fisherman whereby Adams plotted the market towns within 100 miles of his port. On returning to London he produced a draft in a similar manner of the whole of England and Wales. With the help of Gregory King a fine 12-sheet map was published in 1677. King had helped John Ogilby in the production of his own road atlas entitled ‘Britannia’ and would provide much of the figures for this work.

This example is engraved by Richard Bennett who flourished between 1754 and 1761. It is possible that he continued beyond 1761 but a date of c.1760 is hereby given for publication. A key to the lower left of the plan provides information on: post roads marked with ‘prickd’ lines, principal cross roads solid line; the names of cities are contained within a double ruled box together with their distance from London, county towns in a single line box together with distance from London, and market town are denoted by an oval. It comes with two very attractive side panels depicting ‘Perspective Views of the Principal Sea Ports of England’ including London, Bristol, Hull, Newcastle, Liverpool, Yarmouth, Portsmouth and Plymouth. Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011)