Camden Soc. pp. 108–9). Others who rendered assistance were Sir Henry Spelman [q. v.], John Barkham [q. v.], and William Smith (1550?–1618) [q. v.], rouge dragon. Speed fully acknowledged his indebtedness to other writers, and the insinuation in the ‘Biographia Britannica’ that his account of Henry VII's reign was taken bodily from Bacon's work is baseless. Both used largely Bernard André's ‘Historia,’ but Speed's work was probably prior to that of Bacon, and the latter has in several places followed and accentuated Speed's misreadings of André (Andreas, Historia, ed. Gairdner, Pref. pp. xvi, xxv, xxxiv). Speed's ‘History’ was dedicated to James I, and published in 1611 as a continuation of the ‘Theatre of Great Britaine,’ the paging in the two works being continuous. A second edition appeared in 1623 (reissued 1625 and 1627), a third in 1632, a revised edition in 1650, and an epitome in 1676. The catalogue of monasteries was published by Nicholas Harpsfield in 1622 in his ‘Historia Anglicana Ecclesiastica,’ and the portion dealing with the history of the Isle of Man was edited by the Manx Society (1859, &c., vol. xviii.) The publication of this work established Speed's claim to be the first of English historians as distinguished from chroniclers and annalists; Granger called it ‘in its kind, incomparably more complete than all the histories of his predecessors put together.’ Degory Wheare [q. v.] and others echoed these praises, but more just is Spedding's remark that Speed's ‘History, though enriched with some valuable records and digested with a more discriminating judgment than had been brought to the task before, was yet composed for the most part out of the old materials and retained almost all the old blunders’ (Bacon, Works, ed. Spedding, vi. 4, 133).
Meanwhile Speed turned his attention to theological subjects, and about 1611 he published his collection of ‘Genealogies recorded in Sacred Scripture’ (London, n.d. 4to). No less than thirty-three editions of this work appeared before 1640, many of them being published with various editions of the Bible. In 1616 followed ‘A Cloud of Witnesses … confirming unto us the Truth of the Histories in God's most Holie Word’ (London, 1616, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1620, dedicated to Whitgift). In 1625 he wrote that in spite of his blindness he was ‘keeping a continuation of his History’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1625–6, p. 308). He also suffered from the stone, and died on 28 July 1629, aged 77. He was buried in St. Giles's, Cripplegate, and a memorial inscription on his tomb is printed in Stow's ‘Survey’ (ed. Strype, I. iii. 85, 86) and in Ormerod's ‘Cheshire’ (ii. 406). An anonymous portrait of Speed was in 1879 transferred from the British Museum to the National Portrait Gallery, London. An engraving by G. Savery, from a painting belonging to Speed's grandson Samuel, is prefixed to the later editions of most of Speed's works.
Besides the works mentioned above, the following maps by Speed are in the British Museum Library: 1. ‘The kingdom of England, described by C. Saxton, augmented by J. S.,’ 1610. 2. ‘Norwiche,’ 1610? 3. ‘Canaan, begun by J. Moore, continued and finished by J. S.,’ 1611. 4. ‘Town and Castle of Lancaster,’ 1621. 5. ‘Asia,’ 1626. 7. ‘America,’ 1626. 8. ‘Kent,’ 1627. 9. ‘Darbieshire,’ 1680? A map of Yorkshire by him is extant in Lansdowne MS. dcccxcvii. 9, and others of Suffolk and Norfolk in Egerton MS. 2445, ff. 103, 181; a tract entitled ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ written about 1616, is in Egerton MS. 2255, and five of his letters to Cotton are printed in Ellis's ‘Original Letters’ (Camden Soc.) pp. 108, 110–13.
By his wife Susanna, who died on 28 March 1628, aged 70, Speed had issue twelve sons and six daughters. William, probably the eldest, was admitted scholar of Merchant Taylors' School on 10 Feb. 1594–5. Another son, John Speed (1595–1640), born in January 1594–5, entered Merchant Taylors' School in January 1603–4, matriculated from St. John's College, Oxford, on 30 Oct. 1612, and graduated B.A. on 19 June 1616, M.A. on 5 May 1620, M.B. and M.D. on 20 June 1628, was admitted at Gray's Inn in 1633, and died in May 1640, being buried in St. John's College chapel. He was author of two unpublished tracts: ‘Σκελετὸς utriusque Sexus πολυκίνητος,’ preserved in manuscript in St. John's College library, and ‘Stonehenge,’ a pastoral, acted before the president and fellows of St. John's in 1635. He was father of Samuel Speed [q. v.] and of John Speed (1628–1711), born on 4 Nov. 1628, who was elected fellow of St. John's in 1647, graduated B.A. on 1 Feb. 1647–8, M.A. on 20 Sept. 1660, M.B. and M.D. on 19 June 1666. He was ejected from his fellowship in 1648, and subsequently practised medicine at Southampton, of which he was mayor in 1681 and 1694. He died there on 21 Sept. 1711. He wrote ‘Batt upon Batt; a poem upon the Parts, Patience, and Pains of Bartholomew Kempster, Clerk, Poet, and Cutler, of Holyrood Parish, Southampton’ (1680, 4to), which reached a seventh edition in 1740. His grandson, John Speed, M.D. (1703–1781), made extensive manuscript collections relating to Southampton, now preserved in the
