John Speed is my honorable ancestor. It was from him (indirectly) that I acquired the middle name of "Speed." I have been interested in maps since I was a Boy Scout, but the maps of John Speed are special, and I have chosen to make a hobby out of collecting and studying them.

• Some of them show parts of the world that were not fully explored at the time of his life.


• The maps show sailing ships, flags, natives, sea monsters, mythical beings, and more.


• He is credited with publishing the first atlas in English.


• He is also credited with being the first cartographer to make the mistake of representing California as an island in an atlas.


• He produced the maps of Canaan that were bound into the first edition of the King James Bible.


• He developed and wrote the Postdiluvian Genealogy of Noah also bound in the first edition of the King James Bible


• He was a contemporary of William Shakespeare, Thomas Harriott, and Sir Walter Raliegh and lived in London.


• A selected sub-set of Speed maps that relate to Thomas Harriott, and Sir Walter Raliegh


• Much More