Pelham, Henry

Aquatint map engraved by Francis Jukes, top sheet (of two) only (21 1/2 x 28 1/4 in.; 505 x 717 mm)., title in upper margin, trompe l'oeil rendering in upper left corner of Pelham's compass and unfurled military pass; some creasing to edges with a few closed tears with old repairs on verso, top edge hinge-mounted to matt, some minor faint spotting. 

Deâk, Picturing America 149; John W. Reps, "Boston by Bostonians: The Printed Plans and Views of the Colonial City by its Artists, Cartographers, Engravers, and Publishers," in Boston Prints and Printmakers 1670-1775 (1-2 April 1971): 52-56

Boston under siege  British intelligence commissioned Loyalist Henry Pelham to draw up a comprehensive survey of Boston Harbor and its environs, extending about four miles in all directions (Deâk). To this end, Pelham studied extant English military maps and sketches, and visited the front lines. A facsimile of the pass issued to him by town major, James Urquhart, on 28 August 1775 is cleverly produced in trompe l'oeil in the upper lefthand corner. The map was completed using the relatively new aquatint process in London by the engraver, Francis Jukes, who is chiefly known for his fine marine and landscape views.

"topographically accurate and handsomely executed," there are careful renderings herein, not only of the military encampments and gun batteries, but also of such fine details as "Harvard Colledge," and the mansions along Watertown Road, and "Bunkers Hill" in Charles Town. It is, as such, a remarkable record of the British occupation of Boston during the Revolution. 

Pelham lamented how war had transmogrified the landscape's complexion, reporting in January 1776 to his half-brother, John Singleton Copley, that there was "not a Hillock 6 feet High but What is entrench'd, not a pass where a man could go but what is defended by Cannon; fences pulled down, houses removed, Woods grubed up, Fields cut into trenches and molded into Ramparts ... There is not a Tree, not an house, not even so much as a stick of wood as large as your hand remains."

Rare. According to Deâk, there are fewer than a dozen recorded impressions of the present map.