The Speed dynasty in Southampton

John Speed the mapmaker had a son also called John born in 1595 who graduated from St John’s College Oxford as a medical anatomist. In 1627 this John married Margaret Warner the daughter of Bartholomew Warner a doctor and Professor of medicine at St John’s College. John and Margaret had a son in 1628 named John after his father and paternal grandfather. It is this John Speed, the grandson of the mapmaker, who came to Southampton and began the town’s Speed dynasty.

Like his father and maternal grandfather, Southampton’s first John Speed entered St John’s College, Oxford in 1644 to study medicine graduating with a Bachelor Degree in 1647. He continued at St John’s as a postgraduate medical student to study for a Masters degree.

This was a difficult time for John as Oxford, a Royalist stronghold, was under siege between 1644 and 1646 in one of the major actions of the English Civil War. Royalist forces had their headquarters in the city and were funded by the University. The city eventually surrendered to the Parliamentarians in June 1646. By July, Parliament had blocked all new University appointments and proposed a Visitation which took place in 1647. The Visitation was a religious and political purge resulting in many Masters and Fellows losing their positions. As a Royalist John lost his place as a Fellow moving to Southampton in 1648 to live with his friends the Knollys at Grove Place, Nursling. The Knollys were Royalists and had been servants to Charles I who had granted them Grove Place.

With the restoration of the monarchy, John was reinstated as a Fellow of St John’s College in 1659 and completed his Masters degree graduating in 1660 then settling in Southampton in 1667 where he practised as a doctor. John was well known for his hospitality, his excessive alcohol consumption and his ability to out drink others.

As well as his work as a doctor John became involved in local politics and was Mayor of Southampton on two occasions, once in 1681 and again in 1694. His friend John Pinhorne the Rector of All Saints and headmaster of the Grammar School drew the intellectual ability of Isaac Watts to John’s attention seeking his help to gain Watts a place at Oxford. Watts declined their support preferring to join a Dissenting Academy instead.

John worshipped at Holyrood church where he became acquainted with Bartholomew Kempster who was the Parish Clerk and a cutler by trade. Kempster had written verse about the doctor who replied with a poem he published as a book called "Batt upon Batt. A poem upon the Parts, Patience and Pains of Bartholomew Kempster, Clerk, Poet and Cutler of Holyrood Parish in Southampton". This went to seven editions with two editions published after Speed's death in 1711. The poem can be found and read on line.

John Speed married Elizabeth Baker the widow of William Bernard the vicar of Holy Rood Church. After having had three children sadly Elizabeth died in 1677 and in 1681 John married Philadelphia Knollys, the daughter of Thomas Knollys of Grove Place. Philadelphia died in 1716 and was buried at Holy Rood. Between these marriages there was possibly a third short marriage producing one child in 1679.

In 1671 John and Elizabeth Baker had a son they named John who also trained to be a doctor at St John’s and in 1701 he married Ann Crosse the daughter of a Southampton merchant. John and Ann also had a son named John in 1703. It was this John Speed who in about 1770 completed the important manuscript “A History of Southampton” and who was a great opponent of the town’s Pavement Commissioners in the Spa Period. All three John Speeds are buried in Holy Rood church.

Godfrey Collyer is a tour guide with SeeSouthampton.co.uk .