JEFFERYS, Thomas (1719-1771)
Jamaica From The Latest Surveys
London: Printed for Robert Sayer, 20 February, 1775. Double-page folio engraved map, uncoloured, with large compass rose, title cartouche, two inset harbour plans, scales in statute miles and sea leagues, longitude from Ferro and London. Sheet size: 21 3/8 x 28 1/2 inches.
A detailed map which documents a record of plantation geography and a practical harbour chart. The two large insets, the engraved relief, the dense coastal nomenclature, and the clearly marked parishes make it one of the most desirable eighteenth-century English maps of Jamaica.
This large and finely engraved map presents Jamaica at the height of its eighteenth-century importance within the British Caribbean. The island is shown parish by parish, with Hanover, Westmoreland, St. James, St. Elizabeth, Clarendon, St. Catherine, St. Andrew, St. Thomas, Portland, St. George, St. Mary, St. Ann, and Trelawny all carefully delineated. The interior is strongly rendered with hachured mountains, especially through the Cockpit Country, the Blue Mountains, and the broken highlands of the center and east. Roads, rivers, ponds, churches, forts, settlements, coastal bays, anchorages, shoals, and soundings are all shown, giving the map a practical value beyond its general geographical outline. The map is particularly rich in named coastal detail. Along the north shore appear Montego Bay, Lucea Harbour, Rio Bueno, St. Anns Bay, Port Maria, Annotto Bay, Buff Bay, and Port Antonio; along the south coast are Bluefields Bay, Pedro Bluff, Old Harbour, Kingston Harbour, Morant Bay, and the eastern promontories around Morant Point. The maps attention to harbours and anchorages reflects Jamaica's commercial and strategic position in the Caribbean, while its dense network of roads, estates, and parish divisions records the plantation geography of British Jamaica. A note at upper left reads that towns of formerly enslaved people are distinguished by a stroke under the name. It records towns within the colonial cartographic frame, marking communities descended from Africans who had escaped enslavement and established defensible settlements in Jamaica's interior. The inset at lower left, The Harbour of Bluefields, extends from Savanna la Mar toward Bluefields Bay, with roads, rivers, named estates, coastal points, soundings, shoals, and anchorage. It is more than a harbour vignette, giving a close view of the western plantation coast, including Savanna la Mar, Bluff Point, Bluefields Bay, Moor Reef, Crab Pond Point, and the surrounding estate landscape. The inset at lower right, The Harbours of Kingston and Port Royal, shows Kingston laid out in grid form at the head of Kingston Harbour, with Hunts Bay, Passage Fort, Greenwich, Rock Fort, Long Mountain, Port Royal, Fort Charles, the Palisadoes, shoals, keys, channels, and extensive soundings. Together the insets make the sheet a combined island map and maritime chart, with close attention to Jamaica's two most commercially and militarily significant harbour systems. Thomas Jefferys was one of the leading English cartographers of the 18th century. From about 1750, he published a series of maps of the Americas, that were among the most significant produced in the period. As Geographer to the Prince of Wales, and after 1761, Geographer to the King, Jefferys was well-placed to have access to the best surveys conducted, and many of his maps held the status of "official work." Jefferys died on 20th November 1771, but Robert Sayer (in partnership with John Bennett) 'having acquired the sole property of the Plates' and other material relating to the work, 'minutely followed' Jefferys' plans for The West India Atlas although Sayer does note that additional work was done using various sources to ensure that the information was up to date.
See also: D. Gestetner "Thomas Jefferys': West-India Atlas, 1775" in MapForum, issue 7 (2005), pp.40-48 & issue 8 (2005), pp.30-35; Phillips 2699.
Item #42744
Price: $2,250.00