A fine example of the first map of the county on a scale of one inch to one mile (the largest scale to date), Rocque's map of Shropshire is also the first of his county surveys. It established a pattern that was to continue with the one inch survey of Middlesex (1754), and the two inch surveys of Berkshire (1761) and Surrey (1768). The survey is typical of Rocque, minute ichnographical detail illustrating buildings and houses, and fields depicted in such a way that land use can easily be ascertained, with different types of vegetation depicted. As with many of his other maps, both the extravagant dedicatory cartouche and the "Explanation" are in English and French, reflecting Rocque's Huguenot background. There is even, below the scale bar, a list of correspondence between "Noms Anglois" and "Noms Francois", which translates a variety of terms, from "Hill" ("Colline"), to "Oak" ("Chene").

John Rocque (c1704-1762) was a French Huguenot, whose family emigrated from France, first to Switzerland, then to England, following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. While his most famous work is his monumental 1746 map of the city of London, which took nine years to produce, he started his career as a "dessinateur de jardins", producing plans of royal and aristocratic gardens. He produced an enormous and varied number of maps and prints - a contemporary list of 1761 indicating some hundred or so items for sale from the premises in the Strand, which included the Shropshire survey at 12s 6d.