This bibliography describes the many variants and derivatives of the Map of the most Inhabited Part of New England, starting with its primary source map.
This Plan of the British Dominions of | New England in North America | Composed from actual Surveys: | Is Dedicated to the several General Assemblies or Legisla- | tures of the Province of Massachusets [sic] Bay[,] of the Province of New | Hampshire, of the Collony [sic] of Conecticut; [sic] & the Collony [sic] | of Rhode Island; by William Douglas [sic] M.D. | Boston lies in Latitude 42 D. 25 M. north, Longitude from | London 71 D. 30 M. west. | The Plan is suited to the Compass or Magnetic Needle | at a Medium of 8 D. 30 M. west Variation. | The Scale is 5 English Mile[s] (whereof 69 to one Degree | of Latitude) to one Inch. | From these Positions the Latitude, Longitude and | Distance are easily found.
Published by the | Executors of Dr. William Douglas of Boston in | New England, from his Original Draught. || Engraved by R. W. Seale.
Physical Description:
A copper engraving in four sheets, 102.3cm x 92.9cm (largest dimensions of its ornate border).
Notes:
That Seale engraved the map indicates that the map was engraved in London. The date is uncertain but commentators agree that 1753 is the probable date, sometime after Douglass’s death in October 1752. Most commentators simply give the date; Sellers and Van Ee (1981) give “1753?” However, Edney (2003) proved that the map was not in fact printed until mid-1755.
The map was published separately.
The map shows southern New England and adjacent parts of New Hampshire and the southern tip of Maine. Coverage is extended by an inset (at same scale), in the top-left corner, of the “Province of Main,” encompassing Casco Bay and the lower Kennebec, Androscoggin, and Sagadahoc rivers.
The provincial, township, and some county boundaries are shown, together with meeting houses and a few other cultural features (ferries, bridges). No roads and very few towns are shown. Constructed from surveys at 1:316,800 (verbal statement in title), the map has none of the usual elements of a graticule, scale bar, or north-arrow.
The imprint, damaged on the Harvard copy, is taken from the Library of Congress copy.
First Variant (1755). [OS-1755-13]
November 29th. 1755 Published according to Act by Thos Jefferys Geographer to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales near Charing Cross
| Observations on which this Map is grounded. | ||||||||
| Longitude from | ||||||||
| Lat.d | London | Ferro | Observers | |||||
| Boston | 42° | 25′ | 71° | 00′ | 53° | 25′ | Brattle | 1700 |
| New York | 40° | 45′ | 74° | 04′ | 56° | 29′ | Burnet | 17 |
Konektikut [sic] is taken chiefly from the Survey of Gardner | and Kellock, made in 1737. || The Massachusets [sic] and Rhode Island divisions, from par- | ticular Surveys, Plans and Charts. || New Hampshire from the Surveys of Mitchell and Haz- | zen in 1750, especially this last. || The Coast from Cape Elizabeth Eastward and the River | Kennebek from the Survey made by order of Governor | Shirley in 1754. || Long Island, New York Harbor, and Course of Hudson’s | River, to Lydius or Nicholsons Fort, are laid down from very | large and particular Surveys with that of Hazzen and others. || Wood Creek with St. Sacrament and part of Champlain | Lake, from a French Survey. || The Lands granted by Massachusets [sic] Bay Province to the Province of New Hampshire are distinguished by Purple.
Explanation [. . .]
Insets:
Top-left corner: “Fort Frederik | a French Incroachment” at Crown Point on Lake Champlain. ca.1:1,580 (from scale bar in feet).
Bottom center, beside title cartouche: “A Plan of | Boston Harbor | from an Accurate Survey.” ca.1:146,000.
Physical description:
A copper engraving in four sheets, 97.9cm x 104.4 cm.
Notes:
Published separately at the very end of November 1755.
Covers southern New England and adjacent parts of New York (Long Island, New York city, Hudson River), southern New Hampshire, and southern Maine (to lower Kennebec and Pemaquid), 43°30′ to 44°30′ north and 51°30′ to 56°30′ west of London, at a scale of ca.1:443,000 (from scale bars in statute miles and “English marine leagues”). Most of present-day Vermont has yet to be covered by townships. The provincial, township, and county boundaries are shown, together with meeting houses, and a few other cultural features (ferries, bridges, and some roads). The features are explained in the “Explanation” against the right hand margin that lists: brook, or branch; creek; carrying place; pond; point; river, or run; island; islands; forts and fortified places; “Local Mark for the Meeting-house of the Town or Township”; English habitations; Indian habitations; “Two Strokes Lat. & Long. Observed”; the “Setting of the Tide.”
Stevens & Tree (1951, no.33a) called this variant the “First Edition, First Issue.” See also McCorkle (2001, no.755.16); Sellers & Van Ee (1981, no.797) apparently describes the second variant, but reproduces the first.
To make this map, John Green took Douglass’s Plan and fitted it to a projected graticule using the known positions of Boston and New York, added some extra data (e.g., chains of hills from Lewis Evans’s General Map of the Middle British Colonies [Philadelphia, 1755], and some roads). The origins of Green’s work in Douglass’s Plan was acknowledged in the advert for the map, on the front page of the Public Advertiser (London, 29 Nov 1755).
Notes
The most prominent change in this variant was in the title, which now read “Conecticut”; other instances of “Konektikut” on the original plates were not changed and remain on all subsequent impressions. The changes in detail are relatively minor, so that Stevens & Tree (1951, no.33b) called this the “First Edition, Second Issue.” Streeter (1966-70, no. 690) identified a new features that date from at least 1759. It is probable that the changes were made to the plate before the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, after which demand for such maps declined.
See also Sellers & Van Ee (1981, no.797).
Insets
The inset of Fort Frederik on Lake Champlain is replaced by a larger inset, “A Plan of the Town of Boston” (no scale). The original inset was part of the first variant’s polemical stance against the French encirclement of English settlement; its replacement by an image more clearly relevant to New England reflects the end of the French and Indian War and the removal of French claims to Canada.
Notes
In addition to the replacement of the inset at upper-left, the previously blank lands between the Connecticut River and Lake Champlain (i.e., present-day Vermont) have become a sea of newly organized townships; Lake Winnipesaukee is much more angular and less crudely delineated. The two lower sheets, including the title and imprint, remained unchanged.
Stevens & Tree (1951, no.33c) originally dated this variant ~ which they termed “Second Edition, First Issue” ~ to ca.1763, perhaps because of the entry in Jefferys’s catalog of ca.1763 (see Harley 1966, 34; Ristow 1974, viii). Streeter (1966-70, no. 688) noted however that some of the new townships shown west of the Connecticut River had been granted only in 1764. The decline in demand for colonial maps after 1763 means that these changes were probably made and printed only after Jefferys’s bankruptcy in November 1766 led to his collaboration with Robert Sayer. Indeed, Sellers & Van Ee (1981, no. 798) note that the Library of Congress copy is found in the General Topography, published by “Sayer and Jefferys” (Jefferys 1768a). Also of relevance here is that there are very few changes between this state and the next. I therefore date this state to 1767-68.
Fourth Variant ([1768]). [OS-1768-3] [no change in title or imprint]
Notes
This variant differs only slightly from the third, leading Stevens & Tree (1951, no.33d) to label it the “Second Edition, Second Issue.” The difference comprised a single note added just below the top-left inset: “Note. Connecticut River is fixed by his majesty in Council, to be the Bounds between New York and New Hampshire. The Townships coloured Yellow, were granted by the Government of New Hampshire.” This refers to a 1764 decision by the Crown. However, the note was certainly added in 1768 because the variant is usually found in Jefferys’s rare General Topography (Jefferys 1768a). Jefferys had gone bankrupt in November 1766 and was rescued by a new partnership early in 1767 with Robert Sayer. Together, they printed the General Topography to raise money: as the prefatory list of maps remarked, it would cost more than eleven guineas to buy all the maps in this atlas separately, but the whole work, half-bound, was priced at only six guineas; what a deal!
A description of this map in that prefatory “List of Maps” is relevant:
“21. A Map of the most inhabited . . . Rhode Island; the whole composed from Dr. Douglas’s Map, and other particular Surveys, and the Situations adjusted by astronomical Observations by J. Green, Esq.; with the Additions of the new Townships granted by the Government of New Hampshire, in the Province of New York, since the Peace of 1762. In four sheets. Price 10s 6d.”
This is very close to the listing of the map (in an earlier state) in Jefferys’s ca.1763 catalog, reproduced by Harley (1966, 34) and Ristow (1974, viii), which identified Green but not Douglass.
See also Sellers & Van Ee (1981, no.799).
Fifth Variant ([1776]). [OS-1774-3] [imprint changed] “November 29th. 1774 Published according to Act by Thos Jefferys Geographer to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales near Charing Cross”
Notes
After Jefferys’s 1771 death, his plates were acquired by Robert Sayer. With the increasing tension in the colonies, leading up to the Revolution, Sayer and his partner John Bennett, reprinted the map of New England and many more of Jefferys’s maps in The American Atlas (Jefferys 1775; Jefferys 1974 is a facsimile). Although this atlas’s title page bore the copyright date of 1775, it was probably not printed until 1776; similarly, the 1776 edition contains some maps whose individual imprints are 1777 (see Ristow 1974 and Gardiner 1976). Sayer and Bennett published two more editions of this atlas in 1778 and 1782.
The only change made to the Map of the most Inhabited Part of New England for the first atlas edition was to the imprint: the original date of 1755 was altered to 1774. The slight change in imprint led Stevens & Tree (1951, no.33e) to call this the “Third Edition.” This variant of the map remained unchanged throughout the publication history of The American Atlas. It was also used by William Faden in his North American Atlas (London, 1777). Of all the versions of the map, the third edition had by far the most copies printed; it is certainly the most commonly found version today.
See also Sellers & Van Ee (1981, no.800).
Sixth Variant (1794). [OS-1794-4] [imprint changed] “Laurie & Whittle . . . 1794”
Notes
Robert Sayer’s business was inherited, on his death, by his apprentices, Laurie and Whittle. They redated all of Sayer’s maps to the date of inheritance, 1794, and continued to print them, including the map of New England. Stevens & Tree (1951, no.33f) called this variant the “Fourth Edition.”
A Map of | the Colonies of | Connecticut | and | Rhode Island, | Divided into | Counties and Townships; | from the best | Authorities. | by Thos. Kitchin Geogr.
Printed for R. Baldwin in Pater Noster Row 1758
Physical description
Copper engraving in one sheet, 17.4cm x 23.2cm (dimensions taken from Jolly). The map’s scale is 1:1,013,760 (from Thompson)
Notes
Published in London Magazine 27 (April 1758): opposite 168. See Jolly (1990, LOND-135); Klein (1989, L58.6); Sellers & Van Ee (1981, no.805).
Thompson (1940, no. 14) argued that this map was drawn from the same source as the Jefferys-Green map, which he presumed was the now lost survey by Gardner and Kelloch (or Kellogg: Thompson 1941, 33). [Update: the Chandler-Kellogg map did not cover Connecticut and is a red herring.] Benes (1981, no. 18) suggested that it was derived from either the Douglass or the first variant of the Jefferys-Green maps. However, the chains of hills indicate that it certainly did not come directly from Douglass. Given the ‘knock-off’ nature of the map, it is most likely derived from the first variant of the Jefferys-Green map. Note that Kitchin had also used the Jefferys-Green inset of Fort Frederik for his map of New York in the London Magazine (London, 1756): Sellers & Van Ee (1951, no.1038); Jolly (1990, LOND-109) and Klein, (1989, L56.10).
In London, Carrington Bowles published a one-sheet reduction of the second variant of the Map of the most Inhabited Part of New England in about 1765. (The Bowles family had underwritten the preparation of the large map.) He omitted the insets and the complex title cartouche, but he copied the geographic detail faithfully and kept the title. With the outbreak of the American Revolution, he reprinted the map, but now with a changed title: Bowle’s Map of the seat of war in New England, which he soon changed to Bowles’s New Pocket Map of the Most Inhabited Part of New England. There was initially no change in geographical content, other than the addition of an inset of Boston, but by 1780 even a hack copyist like Bowles had to add “Vermont” to the map in recognition of that state’s self-creation. Some time after the war, Bowles’s heirs issued the map yet again, but under yet another title Bowles’s New One-Sheet Map of New England. These title changes seem to reflect the conflict between two commercial practices, of referring back to the original, reputable source map to display the copy’s authority and quality, and of claiming novelty and originality to promote new sales. The dates of the later states are from Stevens and Tree (1951, no. 32).
A Map of the most Inhabited Part of | New England, | containing the Provinces of | Massachusets [sic] Bay and New Hampshire, | with the Colonies of Conecticut [sic] and Rhode Island, | divided into Counties and Townships: | The whole composed from Actual Surveys and | its Situation adjusted by | Astronomical Observations.
London Printed for John Bowles at the Black Horse in Cornhill & Carington Bowles | in St. Pauls Churchyard
Physical description
Copper engraving in one sheet, 51.7cm x 63.8cm (dimensions from Stevens & Tree 1951, no. 32). Scale ca.1:800,000 (from Sellers & Van Ee, no.810).
Notes
Separately published.
Same title and imprint, map now shows “Vermont.”
State 6 (ca. 1796)
[title and imprint changed to] “Bowles’s | New One-Sheet Map | of | New England; comprehending the Provinces of | Massachusets Bay | and | New Hampshire; | with the Colonies of | Connecticut & Rhode Island; | Divided into their Counties, | Townships, &c. | Together with an Accurate Plan of | the Town, Harbour and Environs | of Boston. || Printed for the Proprietors Bowles & Carver, No.69 in St. Pauls Church Yard. London”Reproduced by Fite & Freeman (1926, 236).
In London, Carrington Bowles published a one-sheet reduction of the second variant of the Map of the most Inhabited Part of New England in about 1765. (The Bowles family had underwritten the preparation of the large map.) He omitted the insets and the complex title cartouche, but he copied the geographic detail faithfully and kept the title. With the outbreak of the American Revolution, he reprinted the map, but now with a changed title: Bowle’s Map of the seat of war in New England, which he soon changed to Bowles’s New Pocket Map of the Most Inhabited Part of New England. There was initially no change in geographical content, other than the addition of an inset of Boston, but by 1780 even a hack copyist like Bowles had to add “Vermont” to the map in recognition of that state’s self-creation. Some time after the war, Bowles’s heirs issued the map yet again, but under yet another title Bowles’s New One-Sheet Map of New England. These title changes seem to reflect the conflict between two commercial practices, of referring back to the original, reputable source map to display the copy’s authority and quality, and of claiming novelty and originality to promote new sales. The dates of the later states are from Stevens and Tree (1951, no. 32).
A Map of the most Inhabited Part of | New England, | containing the Provinces of | Massachusets [sic] Bay and New Hampshire, | with the Colonies of Conecticut [sic] and Rhode Island, | divided into Counties and Townships: | The whole composed from Actual Surveys and | its Situation adjusted by | Astronomical Observations.
London Printed for John Bowles at the Black Horse in Cornhill & Carington Bowles | in St. Pauls Churchyard
Physical description
Copper engraving in one sheet, 51.7cm x 63.8cm (dimensions from Stevens & Tree 1951, no. 32). Scale ca.1:800,000 (from Sellers & Van Ee, no.810).
Notes
Separately published.
Same title and imprint, map now shows “Vermont.”
State 6 (ca. 1796)
[title and imprint changed to] “Bowles’s | New One-Sheet Map | of | New England; comprehending the Provinces of | Massachusets Bay | and | New Hampshire; | with the Colonies of | Connecticut & Rhode Island; | Divided into their Counties, | Townships, &c. | Together with an Accurate Plan of | the Town, Harbour and Environs | of Boston. || Printed for the Proprietors Bowles & Carver, No.69 in St. Pauls Church Yard. London”Reproduced by Fite & Freeman (1926, 236).
The American Revolution also prompted French and German publishers to copy the Jefferys-Green map in a variety of editions. Both Tobias Lotter in Augsburg and Georges Louis Le Rouge made precise copies of the second issue of the second edition of the map, which had been distributed within the General Topography. I. M. Probst made a further copy of Lotter’s map. All three copies kept the English title of the source map, as if to reassure the French and German readership of the authenticity of the information. Le Rouge provided an alternate French title; Probst added a lengthy Latin subtitle. The nature of the copying of these maps is brought home by the engraving of the title cartouche for Le Rouge’s edition: the engraver made a direct copy of the original cartouche; when printed, the image was thus reversed (see Benes 1981, 17).
In all, the Map of the most Inhabited Part of New England was a most successful cartographic image.
A Map of | the most Inhabited part of | New England | containing the Provinces of | Massachusets [sic] Bay and New Hampshire, | with the Colonies of | Conecticut [sic] and Rhode Island, | Divided into Counties and Townships | The whole composed from Actual Surveys and its Situation adjusted by | Astronomical Observations. | Published by Tobias Conrad Lotter, in Augsburg.
Lotter, Sculpsit. 1776
Physical description
Copper engraving in four sheets, 97.5cm x 101.7cm.
Notes
A very close copy of the fourth variant of the Jefferys-Green map; all bodies of text in English; same cartouche image (same way round as the original); same insets. See McCorkle (2001, no. 776.10); Sellers & Van Ee (1981, no.801).
A Map of the most Inhabited part of New England containing the Provinces of Massachusets [sic] Bay and New Hampshire, with the Colonies of Conecticut [sic] and Rhode Island, Divided into Counties and Townships; The whole composed from Actual Surveys and its Situation adjusted by Astronomical Observations. Tabula geographica cultis simam delineans Novae Angliae partem, provincias nempe Massachusets Bay et New Hampshire colonias porro Connecticut et Rhode Island in varia earum territoria divisas ex Gardineri, Kellockii, Mitchelii, Hazzenii aliorumque geometrarum et astronomorum subsidiis per Iohannem Michaelem Probst. Lucas Voch, ing. Augsburg, I. M. Probst, 1777.
Notes
A new engraving of the Lotter map. See McCorkle (2001, no.777.11); Sellers & Van Ee (1981, nos.803-4).
Imprint changed to 1779.
Map of the Most Inhabited Part of New England
A Map of | the most Inhabited part of | New England | containing the Provinces of | Massachusets [sic] Bay and New Hampshire, | with the Colonies of | Conecticut [sic] and Rhode Island, | Divided into Counties and Townships: | The wole [sic] composed from Actual Surveys and its Situation adjusted by | Astronomical Observations.
[in cartouche] Paris | After The Original | by M Le Rouge | Austin Street | 1777 [in ocean] La Nouvelle Angleterre | en 4 Feuilles. | A Paris | Chez Le Rouge rue des Grands Augustins. | 1777.Physical description
Copper engraving in four sheets, 95.8cm x 101.5cm.
Notes
Published in Georges Louis Le Rouge, Atlas Ameriquain Septentrional Contenant les details des differentes provinces, de ce vaste continent, traduit des cartes levées par ordre du Gouvernement Britannique (Paris, [1777]), folios 11-12. See Phillips (1909-20, no. 3298).
A very close copy of the fourth variant of the Jefferys-Green map, even down to the spelling, in the statement of sources, of Connecticut with ‘k’s (but translated into French). The title cartouche is also a straight copy, but the image was reversed in the process (see Benes 1981, no. 13). Both insets are included. See McCorkle (2001, no.777.10), who calls this the second edition of the map; Sellers & Van Ee (1981, no.802).
