William Berry
1639-1718, London based Cartographer & Publisher
William Berry worked as a seller of maps and globes in London between the years 1671 to 1700. From Warwickshire, this baker's son worked with the famous Robert Morden, and will be familiar to Irish collectors for his set of large maps based on William Petty's surveys which were issued in 1889. He also produced the reduced version of Petty's atlas under the title "A Geographical Description of Ireland", with Robert Morden to coincide with the publication of Petty's larger 'Hiberniae Delineatio', in 1685, the plates of which were engraved by Francis Lamb.
His earliest work can be dated to 1669, and was a book on astronomy published in conjunction with Morden. Morden was again his partner when he later published and sold the now extremely scarce playing card maps. Not withstanding his fruitful association with Robert Morden, he gained renown in his own right as the publisher of a series of two sheet maps based on the originals by the eminent French cartographer, Nicolas Sanson.
He was known to have operated from a number of addresses in London over the years, but at the time of publication of his series of large Irish maps, in 1689, the imprint on the maps read, "Sold by William Berry at the sign of the Globe between Charing Cross and Whitehall.
