Our early parish registers recorded baptisms, marriages and deaths of parishioners and included members of the Darby family who had taken residence here in the 1590’s.
Research on the parish registers carried out by our secretary, Beryl Sims, in the 1990’s revealed that some of John and Elizabeth Darby’s children were baptised here between 1597 &1607 – John Darby’s own death was recorded here in 1608/9. Among the many hundreds of records this was nothing out of the ordinary until the work carried out by Dr Vivienne Aldous in 2024* revealed John Darby’s importance as an early map maker.
And example of his work is a map of the parish of Smallburgh, Norfolk.
(North, or “Septentrio”, is at the bottom on this map)
Credit: From the British Library archive. (Shelfmark: Maps Dep. 1741)
British Library caption: This is a map of the parish of Smallburgh in Norfolk. It dates from 1582 and is the work of John Darby, who was active as a map maker between 1582 and 1594. It is significant as it is one of the first English local maps to be drawn to a consistent scale. It is in unusually good condition which is probably due to it never having been displayed because of its unfinished status. There is no title, several field name panels are left blank and some decoration is only in pencil. In addition to these omissions there is no numerical or alphabetical key to the terrier, the written register of plots, that with the information it contained of acreages, tenants and leases, would have been indispensable for the practical management of the estate.
*Please follow the link here to read Dr Aldous’s thesis:
https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/98688/