Vintage Map of Essex by Joan Blaeu, 1645

Essex in Joan Blaeu’s Atlas

Joan Blaeu first published this map in Amsterdam in 1645 as part of his celebrated Atlas Novus. Its concise Latin title, Essexia Comitatus, means the County of Essex.

The original was produced as a copperplate engraving. A catalogued first-edition example measures approximately 41.5 by 51.5 centimetres within the engraved area and was issued with descriptive text printed on the reverse.

Blaeu was one of the foremost map and atlas publishers of seventeenth-century Amsterdam. Following the death of his father, Willem Blaeu, in 1638, Joan continued and expanded the family business. The Essex map belongs to the series of English and Welsh county maps introduced into the fourth part of the Atlas Novus in 1645.

Essex Divided into Hundreds

One of the most informative features of the map is its division of Essex into hundreds. These were longstanding administrative districts used for local government, justice and taxation.

Blaeu names and distinguishes hundreds including Uttlesford, Freshwell, Hinckford, Dunmow, Lexden, Tendring, Rochford, Chafford, Barstable and Waltham. Their coloured areas and boundary lines make the internal organisation of the historic county particularly easy to follow.

The map therefore offers more than a collection of place names. It shows how seventeenth-century readers understood the county as a series of neighbouring administrative territories. The boundaries should not, however, be treated as the product of a modern precision survey.

Towns, Rivers and the Essex Coast

Chelmsford occupies a central position, while Colchester, Braintree, Saffron Walden, Dunmow, Maldon and Harwich are among the other prominent settlements. Numerous villages and parishes appear through conventional town and church symbols.

Colchester was already an ancient and important borough, but Blaeu represents it as a mapped settlement rather than providing the detailed town plan found on John Speed’s earlier Essex map. This is an important distinction between the two editions offered by The Old Map Company.

The county’s rivers form a particularly strong element of the engraving. The Stour marks much of the boundary with Suffolk, while the Colne, Blackwater, Crouch and Thames flow towards a coast broken by estuaries, creeks and islands. Mersea, Foulness and Canvey Island can be identified around the coastline.

Several sailing ships decorate the North Sea. They add movement and visual interest, although they do not identify particular shipping lanes, cargoes or commercial voyages.

Forest and Settlement

In southwest Essex, Waltham Forest is represented through groups of engraved trees. The historic Forest of Essex—later commonly known as Waltham Forest—was subject to royal forest law and was considerably larger than the surviving Epping Forest of today.

The woodland symbols help the reader recognise an important historic landscape, but they do not record every woodland boundary or individual tree. Similarly, the settlement symbols do not provide architectural pictures of every church, manor, windmill or estate.

Blaeu was an atlas publisher working in Amsterdam, not the field surveyor of Essex. The map’s geographical information ultimately drew upon earlier English county mapping associated with Christopher Saxton and John Speed. Blaeu’s particular contribution lay in transforming that inherited cartography through refined engraving, typography, colouring and decorative design.

Heraldry and Decoration

The left border contains eight family coats of arms, including one blank shield. Large royal heraldic displays occupy the upper corners, while the title Essexia Comitatus appears within a draped cartouche near the top of the map.

At the lower right, putti surround the scale of English miles.At the lower right, cherub-like figures surround the scale of English miles, with one holding a pair of dividers.

These features are characteristic of seventeenth-century Dutch Baroque decoration. They should not be described as neoclassical, nor should the figures be assigned invented meanings connected with Essex agriculture, fishing or maritime trade.

A Map Published During the Civil War

The map was published while the First English Civil War continued in England. Essex was closely connected with Parliament’s Eastern Association, but Blaeu’s engraving does not depict armies, fortifications or military events.

The celebrated siege of Colchester occurred in 1648, three years after the map’s first publication, and therefore should not be presented as an event recorded by the engraving.

Blaeu’s Essexia Comitatus is best understood as an atlas map based upon established county geography: historically informative, visually impressive and particularly notable for its clearly presented hundreds, extensive place names and elaborate heraldic decoration.