{"product_id":"old-map-of-essex-in-1724-by-herman-moll-southend-colchester-chelmsford-basildon-romford","title":"Old Map of Essex in 1724 by Herman Moll - Southend, Colchester, Chelmsford, Basildon, Romford","description":"\u003cp\u003eHerman Moll was a Dutch-born cartographer who settled in London and became one of the most prolific English mapmakers of the early 18th century, producing detailed county surveys as well as maps of the wider world for a growing market of merchants, travellers and gentleman collectors. This map of Essex was published around 1724 as part of Moll's set of English county maps, engraved with the dense lettering and decorative touches typical of his work, often supplemented with short descriptive text panels giving a written account of each county alongside its map. Unlike the earlier Jacobean county maps of John Speed, Moll's sheets reflect a full century of further surveying and settlement growth, giving a noticeably more developed picture of Essex's roads and market towns.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eColchester, recorded as Britain's oldest town and briefly the first capital of Roman Britain under the name Camulodunum, anchors the map as its most historically significant settlement. Chelmsford appears as the county town, sitting at the heart of Essex's road network, while Romford is shown as a busy market town known for its cattle market rather than the London suburb it later became. Basildon and Southend both appear here as modest rural settlements, Basildon still generations away from its 20th-century designation as a new town and Southend not yet developed into the seaside resort that would draw day-trippers by rail. Together these towns capture Essex in the early Georgian period, prosperous and agricultural, well before the railway age reshaped the county.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis map suits a collector building a timeline of Essex across different centuries, sitting alongside our other Essex editions by John Speed, Joan Blaeu, Greenwood \u0026amp; Co. and Samuel Lewis, each drawn a generation or more apart and each offering a genuinely different snapshot of the county's development. It also makes a fitting gift for anyone with family roots in Chelmsford, Colchester or Romford who would enjoy seeing the county as it stood in the early 1700s. It is available unframed in a full range of sizes, from a modest print for a hallway to a larger piece for a study or office wall.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TheMapVault","offers":[{"title":"16x20 inch - UNFRAMED","offer_id":57829855527243,"sku":"1165-16x20","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"A2 (42x60cm) - UNFRAMED","offer_id":57829855560011,"sku":"1165-A2","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"18x24 inch - UNFRAMED","offer_id":57829855592779,"sku":"1165-18x24","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"50x70 cm - UNFRAMED","offer_id":57829855625547,"sku":"1165-50x70","price":42.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"A1 (60x84cm) - UNFRAMED","offer_id":57829855658315,"sku":"1165-A1","price":55.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"24x32 inch - UNFRAMED","offer_id":57829855691083,"sku":"1165-24x32","price":55.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"70x100 cm - UNFRAMED","offer_id":57829855723851,"sku":"1165-70x100","price":69.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"75x100 cm - UNFRAMED","offer_id":57829855756619,"sku":"1165-75x100","price":69.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"A0 (84x119cm) - UNFRAMED","offer_id":57829855789387,"sku":"1165-A0","price":76.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0907\/2456\/5323\/files\/SKU1165Mock004.jpg?v=1783701971","url":"https:\/\/www.themapvault.com\/en-us\/products\/old-map-of-essex-in-1724-by-herman-moll-southend-colchester-chelmsford-basildon-romford","provider":"TheMapVault","version":"1.0","type":"link"}