What we do know for sure is that in 1828 the maps were in the possession of Roger Wilbraham MP (1743-1829), a prominent book collector. Wilbraham’s main collection related to Italian and Spanish poetry, plays and novels, so the maps were a bit of a departure for him. Wilbraham sent the maps to Francis Douce and William Young Ottley, of the British Museum, to certify the provenance of the maps. Wilbraham received two letters in return, that the maps were indeed genuine and that they belonged to him.  

But just how did this collector of Spanish and Italian romances come into the ownership of the maps? The answer may lie in the family’s prestigious past as his ancestor, another Roger Wilbraham (1553-1616), a prominent English lawyer who served as Solicitor-General for Ireland under Elizabeth I. This elder Wilbraham had a storied career, a favourite of the Lord Privy Seal Robert Cecil, he was appointed as Master of Requests. The elder Wilbraham retained this position even after King James I took the throne after Elizabeth, and he ended his career as the King’s surveyor of the Court of Wards and Liveries. It is possible that after a lifetime vying in Royal circles Roger Wilbraham the elder may have been the first recipient of these important maps?  

After Roger Wilbraham the younger’s death in 1834 the majority of his collection was sold at auction. However, the maps were not sold at this point and they remained with the Wilbraham family, passing them down for an additional two generations. Eventually they were sold in 1898 to J.Pearson & Co, a London bookseller, for £30. It was at this point that many of the coloured pigments were added to the maps, as discovered by The National Archives. This was a common trick at the time, intended to increase their resale value, and apparently effective as they were sold to William Waldorf Astor in 1900 for £90, a tidy profit.