42 - Maps, charts and atlases in Britain, 1690–1830

Summary

Introduction

The period between 1690 and 1830 was marked by five major wars, the loss of the colonies in North America, the development of the British empire in India and the exploration of the South Pacific. Maritime commerce was plied around the world. At home, the progress of agriculture, industry and communications altered the domestic landscape. All of these events were given cartographic expression in a variety of forms which, as the eighteenth century wore on, were capable of being ever more precisely rendered as a result of advances in scientific instrumentation and survey. The trade in the thousands of maps, atlases, charts and maritime atlases published in Britain during this time was in the hands of relatively few men: successive generations of the same family carried on the family business, often in ever-shifting partnerships with other map firms.

Such temporary trading partnerships were essential in spreading the high financial risk which was endemic in map publishing for most of this period. The complexities of multiple ownership in any atlas could be of byzantine proportions, involving intricate transactions in the transfer of copyright. The fourth edition of Britannia, or, a chorographical description of Great Britain and Ireland (1772), for example, carried the names of thirty partners on the title page. Sometimes income would be solicited in advance from subscribers, because the capital required to underwrite a successful original survey, followed by its publication, was too high to be borne by the publisher’s purse alone. The cartographic community, on land or at sea, was characterized, until about 1760, by indigence. Thomas Jefferys (c.1719–71) became bankrupt, while Richard Chandler ‘beset by debt’, committed suicide. The statutory provisions of the three copyright Acts of 1735, 1767 and 17775 appeared to have little impact on the practice of plagiarism which was, for many a map and chart publisher, an economic necessity. While much new material of good quality came to be published in the second half of the eighteenth century, old plates – refurbished with or without corrections, and published with new imprints – were generally the stock-in-trade of most.