[Mead, Braddock, alias John Green] | Mead's monumental map of colonial New England, printed on four sheets

[Mead, Braddock, alias John Green]

A Map of the most Inhabited part of New England containing the Provinces of Massachusets Bay and New Hampshire, with the Colonies of Conecticut and Rhode Island, Divided into Counties and Townships: The whole composed from Actual Surveys and its Situation adjusted by Astronomical Observations. London: Thomas Jefferys, November 29th, 1755 [but circa 1764]

Copper-engraved map on four sheets (each sheet: 742 x 547 mm). Unjoined and untrimmed with deckled edges as issued; a few tiny spots, the sheets all with paper restorations along the folds, barely affecting the printed surface though once touching a neatline, a few additional paper restorations and tiny tears at edges and in the margins. Each sheet professionally matted and hinged at the top.

The largest and most detailed map of New England published up until that point, and one of the greatest maps of the east coast of America.

This is the grandest, most accurate and detailed map of New England produced during the British colonial period. It depicts the entire region from Long Island Sound up north to line of 44'30 of latitude. While it shows that the coastal areas and the lower Connecticut Valley were well-settled, areas of the interior, especially in New Hampshire and the future Vermont were just developing, with the early boundaries of townships having recently been established by surveyors. Importantly, this map contains two highly-detailed cartographic insets, one of the city of Boston (upper-left), and another of Boston Harbor on the lower-right sheet. The map is also adorned with a very handsome pictorial title cartouche, depicting the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock in 1620. The present map is the first issue of the second edition of this work and has been significantly updated from the original issue of 1755.

This map's maker, John Green, was an intriguing and larger-than-life figure, who has been called "the genius behind Jefferys." In addition to his extensive cartographic abilities, Green's personal history also stands out from amongst the biographies of other 18th-century British map makers. Green was born Braddock Mead in Ireland around 1688, married in Dublin in 1715 and moved to London in 1717. He was imprisoned in 1728 for trying to defraud an Irish heiress, and assumed his alias after his release from prison. He worked with Ephraim Chambers on his Universal Dictionary before joining the employ of Cave, Astley, and Jefferys. William Cumming remarked that "Mead's contributions to cartography stand out ... At a time when the quality and the ethics of map production were at a low ebb in England, he vigorously urged and practiced the highest standards; in the making of maps and navigational charts he was in advance of his time. For this he deserves due credit" (Cumming, p.45).

REFERENCES

Crone, "Further Notes on Braddock Mead, alias John Green," Imago Mundi, VIII (1951) p. 69; Cf. Crone, "John Green. Notes on a neglected Eighteenth Century Geographer and Cartographer," Imago Mundi, VI (1950) p. 89-91; Cumming, British Maps of Colonial America, pp.45-47; Degrees of Latitude, 35; McCorkle, New England in Early Printed Maps, 755.19 (first edition/state); Sellers & Van Ee, Maps & Charts of North America & West Indies, 799; Stevens & Tree, "Comparative Cartography," 33(c), in Tooley, The Mapping of America