This is a MapHist list message (when you hit 'reply' you're replying to the
whole list)
o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o +
Hello Peter,
Your post about the marked up Lancashire map with family names in the
Burghley collection interests me on two levels.
I am descended from one of the named families on the Lancashire map, the
Nowell's of Reid Hall near Whalley. However, I also have reason to believe
that they played quite an important role in both the Lancashire map and many
others.
I am descended from a Miss Nowell, (with no known Christian name) but she
was brother to Alexander Nowell, who became Dean of St Pauls in 1564 and
remained so for most of the reign of Elizabeth.
The other two brothers seem to have had direct roles in mapping. One was
Laurence Nowell, Dean of Lichfield, the earliest recorded owner of the
earliest known Beowulf manuscript (he wrote his name along the top) and a
scholar of Anglo Saxon. Apparently he was one of the first people to study
Anglo Saxon after its loss in Medieval times. He was a friend of Saxton, and
they made a map of Anglo Saxon England.
The last brother was Roger Nowell, a lawyer, and magistrate best known for
trying the Pendle Witches. He was in Burghley's household and ran the Ward
of Courts which was the system where orphaned children were looked after by
Lord Burghley until such time that they came of age. The estates of their
estates came to Burghley during the minorities of these children, and he
arranged to marry several of these orphans off to his relatives, thereby
acquiring the estates for his heirs.
My great great grandfather researched these stories in the 1880's, and I
have his notes. I read up on these maps and events many years ago, and
discovered that Laurence & Roger Nowell were involved in preparing large
scale maps of England and the principle families, that were hung in
corridors in Theobalds so that Burghley could work out which families were
connected in which areas.
As revolutions or rebellions tended to be family or regionally based, and
security was not all it might have been with various plots, I expect it was
an important task.
Roger Nowell became immensely rich in the course of his work for Burghley in
the Ward of Court, and ended up buying lots of property in the villages like
Tottenham and Hendon north of London.
Are you aware of recent studies into Burghley's mapping, because I would
really like to be able to see if these stories stack up.
Regards
Nick Balmer
----- Original Message -----
From: "Barber, Peter" <[email protected]>
To: "Discussion group for map history" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2011 5:00 PM
Subject: RE: [MapHist] Lord Burghley's Maps
This is a MapHist list message (when you hit 'reply' you're replying to the
whole list)
o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o +
Dear Mr Bard
The maps that you are referring to are in BL Royal MS 18.D.III. This
consists of a set of proofs of Saxton's county maps annotated (often in
Burghley's hand) with the names of prominent local families by the towns
etc. where they lived. The volume also contains more detailed
manuscript plans of places which were of particular interest to him.
These include the manuscript map of Lancashire referred to by Alexander
Schulenberg which appears to highlight the homes of potential traitors,
primarily Catholic but also Puritan.
_______________________________________________
MapHist: E-mail discussion group on the history of cartography
hosted by the Faculty of Geosciences, University of Utrecht.
The statements and opinions expressed in this message are those of
the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the University of
Utrecht. The University of Utrecht does not take any responsibility for
the views of the author.
List Information: http://www.maphist.nl
Maphist mailing list
[email protected]
http://mailman.geo.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/maphist
