John Biggs Estate Map

Perhaps the largest and oldest detailed map held in the Richmond Local Studies Collection shows the land owned by John Biggs in the parish of Mortlake in 1819.

John Biggs was a market gardener, baptised in 1757, who owned and worked land in both Mortlake and Barnes. He built up his land holdings both before and after the Napoleonic Wars. Maisie Brown suggests that he profited from high wartime food prices and was able to expand his business during the post-war depression in agricultural prices. The map of 1819, which was no doubt instrumental in this process, shows Biggs' own land holdings in green and records the acreage and ownership of other plots of land in Mortlake. He also owned several cottages, probably let to his workers, in the centre of Mortlake, including what became known as Biggs Row, as well as some houses on Mortlake High Street.

Biggs had his portrait painted in 1833 by EW Cooke. It shows him surveying his lands in Mortlake. He married twice both times to a lady named Elizabeth. But he produced no heir and died in early 1837. He left bequests to the poor of both Barnes and Mortlake and for the maintenance of his tombstone in Barnes Churchyard "for ever". But his will stipulated that if his tombstone at Barnes was not well maintained the entire legacy should go to Mortlake. When the tithe appropriations and maps were drawn up in 1837-8, Mrs Elizabeth Biggs is recorded as the owner of 47 acres in Mortlake and 14 acres in Barnes. But by 1840 Elzabeth had died and the Biggs name had disappeared from the local land records.

The two hundred year old map in Local Studies is showing its age – the green, indicating the land that Biggs owned has faded, and the map backing is cracked making decifering some of the writing difficult. It is also cumbersome to display being around six feet square. However, the map has now been reproduced from photographs of the original and digitally redrawn. The road and field names have been typed with ownership and acreage details.

The result is shown opposite and a printable version can be downloaded here. The original map has a scale of about 1:800. The Thames is at the bottom of the map and the top is south south west. The green areas, numbered from 1 to 76 represent land that Biggs owned. There are in fact only 75 plots with, for some unknown reason, no number 36. Buildings are shown in grey with those owned by Biggs in red. The main landowners in Mortlake in 1819, apart from Biggs, were R Pettiward, Mrs Joye's (sic) and Edward Taylor. The latter's estate was inherited as part of the sub-manor of West Hall and East Sheen. The details of each plot have been transcribed verbatim even when they are clearly incorrect (eg "Grandolfy" in one instance rather than "Gandolfi") or strange (eg the apostrophe in "Mrs Joye's") or where the numerical acreage is at odds with the description.

John Biggs' map provides a fascinating record of land ownership in the early 19th century and shows the footprint of medieval strip farming on Mortlake's Common Fields.