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The exact identity of Thomas Trippit is a mystery.
The insets on this map—Calais and Texel—may offer a clue about its origins. There were three generations of the Trippit/Tribbit family of Deal, Kent, who were prominent pilots and mariners. Deal, famously a port town without a harbor, faces Calais, while Texel may have marked the northern extent of local cross-Channel trade. We have undertaken a fair amount of research on the topic and believe that the following two narratives offer the most plausible known links to the Thomas Trippit who created the map entitled North and South Polar Projection of the Earth.
Thomas Trippit was probably a local mariner/cartographer, and the archival trail points to the Trippett family of Kent. A plausible narrative is that a Deal-born sailor (perhaps John Trippet’s kin) named Thomas Trippett gained navigational training, served as a pilot or ship’s master (possibly in Royal Navy or merchant service after 1660), and around the 1660s compiled a detailed world map in English.
John Trippett of Deal – Mariner (1650s): In the key Channel port of Deal in Kent, a John Trippett was active mid-century. He died in 1655 leaving a will proven in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and it appears his will mentions a family member named Thomas. The will’s existence (PCC PROB 11/248/526) is evidence of John’s status; many Deal residents were ship’s pilots or captains. While the will’s text is not fully quoted in available sources, its filing in the highest court implies he had assets from a maritime career. This John Trippett of Deal is a strong candidate for a cross-Channel navigator. Deal was a town of “hundreds of ships” riding at anchor in the Downs (the sheltered roadstead off the Kent coast) and was “a thriving port” that provisioned those ships. Mariners from Deal often served as boatmen, pilots, or privateers.
By 1691, a Thomas Trippet is found in Erith, Kent – leaving behind a will but no published works. This fits the profile of a skilled but unsung navigator. Thomas Trippett died in 1691, described as “of Erith” (then in Kent, on the Thames Estuary), again in the Prerogative Court, which suggests he was relatively prosperous. Erith, being downstream of London, was home to mariners, dockyard workers, and Trinity House pilots who guided ships up the Thames. It lies not far from Deptford and Gravesend, centers of navigational training and pilotage. Thomas’s residence there strongly implies a maritime profession – possibly a Thames pilot or ship’s captain. It is conceivable that this Thomas who died in 1691 is the same man who several decades earlier drew a hand-drawn world map signed “Thomas Trippit.” He would have been a contemporary of the Restoration-era navy and the burgeoning global trade routes. While Thomas Trippett of Erith is not known for any printed maps, the timing and his seafaring milieu align well with the creation of a manuscript world map with navigational details.
