John Kirby

Who was John Kirby?

John Kirby was an English land surveyor and topographer. His book The Suffolk Traveller, first published in 1735, was the first single county road-book.

Kirby lived in Wickham Market, Suffolk and spent three years between 1732 and 1734 surveying the entire county. For part of this project he was accompanied by Nathaniel Bacon. In 1736 he published a large-scale map of Suffolk. Subscribers to this received a copy of his book as a free gift. A further large scale map was published the following year.