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MAP #: 267GA

CARTOGRAPHER : GRIERSON, BOULTER

DATE: 1767

SHORT TITLE : A GENERALL CHART FOR THE WEST INDIES

REMAINING TITLE & ID : ACCORDING TO Mr. EDW: WRIGHTS PROJECTION COMMONLY CALLED MERCATORS CHART (OVAL CARTOUCHE, TOP LEFT CORNER). "Js. BARLON. Ft." (BOTTOM RIGHT CORNER). EXPLANATION (BELOW CARTOUCHE). COMPASS ROSES (LOWER LEFT AND CENTER OF CHART). THE VERSO IS BLANK. LONGITUDE FROM GREENWICH (8.2 CM. ABOVE BOTTOM NEAT LINE, ACROSS CHART). LATITUDE (RIGHT AND LEFT BORDERS).

DATE OF PUBLICATION : R1767 (1706?)
PLACE OF PUBLICATION : DUBLIN
PUBLISHER : BOULTER GRIERSON
LANGUAGE(S) : EN
SIZE (HEIGHT X WIDTH) : 45.0 X 56.3 CM.
SIZE - OTHER DATA : ? X ? CM. OM
SCALE - (RF) 1: : 15,500,000 (BASED ON LATITUDE)
LIB. OF CONGRESS # : -
Md. HALL OF RECORDS # 1 : MSA SC1399-453
HUNTINGFIELD ACQ. # 1 : ASON018-UNHLQ*
REGION CATEGORY : THIS MAP IS NOT IMPORTANT TO A MD/CHESAPEAKE COLLECTION (9)
SPECIAL CATEGORY(IES) :
# SHEETS TO MAP : 1
MAP ORIENTATION : N IS AT THE TOP OF THE MAP
RELIEF SHOWN ? : NO
HYDROGRAPHIC DATA : SHOALS ARE SHOWN BY DOTTED LINES (NOT IN THE CHESAPEAKE BAY). : A FEW SOUNDINGS ARE SHOWN IN UNSPECIFIED UNITS (NOT IN THE BAY).
CARTOUCHE : SIMPLE LINE FRAME (2)
BORDER : SIMPLE SUBDIVISIONAL FUNCTIONAL (6)
PRIME MERIDIAN(S) : LONDON (1)
SEE ALSO MAP #s : -
BEST INFO SOURCE : VERNER AND THROWER ARE THE BEST FOUND.
DESCRIPTION : THIS CHART IS FROM THE PIRATED EDITION OF THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE ENGLISH PILOT, PUBLISHED IN 1767 BY BOULTER GRIERSON IN DUBLIN. IT IS DERIVED FROM ONE THAT DATES BACK AT LEAST TO JOHN THORNTON'S 1706 EDITION OF THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE ENGLISH PILOT (SEE PHILLIPS # 1155, MAP [2]) AND MAY GO BACK EVEN FURTHER. THE FIRST EDITION OF THE PILOT WAS IN 1689. THIS CHART IS NOT IMPORTANT TO A MARYLAND-CHESAPEAKE COLLECTION AND HAS NOT BEEN RESEARCHED.

VERNER IN HIS CARTO-BIBLIOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE ENGLISH PILOT INDICATES THE FOLLOWING: "TWO EDITIONS OF THE FOURTH BOOK WERE PRINTED IN DUBLIN -- ONE BY GEORGE GRIERSON IN 1749, THE OTHER BY HIS SON AND SUCCESSOR, BOULTER GRIERSON, IN 1767. BOTH OF THESE WERE PRINTED FROM THE SAME PLATE (WITH A CHANGED IMPRINT ON THE TITLE PAGE) WHICH WERE A DIRECT COPY OF ONE OF THE LONDON EDITIONS PRINTED ABOUT 1737.

"GEORGE GRIERSON LIVED FROM 1709 TO 1753. HE WAS THE FIRST OF A FAMILY OF PRINTERS PROMINENT IN DUBLIN PUBLISHING CIRCLES FOR MANY YEARS, AND IN 1727 BECAME KING'S PRINTER. APPARENTLY THIS PROMPTED HIS PIRACIES, FOR THE ENGLISH PILOT WAS NOT THE ONLY BOOK THAT HE APPROPRIATED...

"THE CHARTS IN GRIERSON'S PILOT ARE, ON THE WHOLE, NOTABLY INFERIOR COPIES OF THEIR ORIGINALS. THE ENGRAVING IS NEITHER AS FINE NOR AS ACCURATE, AND THE IMPRESSIONS ARE POORLY MADE ON A COARSE INFERIOR PAPER STOCK...

"COMMENTING ON THE EDITION OF 1767, SABIN OBSERVES:
'THE MAPS, WHICH HAVE A CLEAR ROUGH, OLD FASHIONED APPEARANCE, ARE NEARLY ALL ENGRAVED EXPRESSLY FOR THIS EDITION, AND DIFFER MATERIALLY FROM THE LONDON EDITION OF THE WORK, CONTAINING GENERALLY MORE MINUTE PARTICULARS.'

"...GRIERSON PUBLISHED ONLY THE ONE EDITION OF THE PIRATED PILOT IN 1749; IT IS EXTREMELY RARE. AFTER HIS DEATH IN 1753, HIS ELDEST SON, GEORGE ABRAHAM GRIERSON, CONTINUED THE BUSINESS, BUT FOR ONLY TWO YEARS. UPON THE DEATH OF THIS SON IN 1755, HIS EXECUTORS CARRIED ON UNTIL 1758, AT WHICH TIME A SECOND SON, BOULTER, ACQUIRED POSSESSION. BOULTER GRIERSON WAS THE SON OF GEORGE'S SECOND WIFE, A SISTER TO THE NOTED PRINTER JAMES BLOW OF BELFAST.

"BOULTER GRIERSON PUBLISHED A SECOND EDITION OF THE PILOT IN 1767, AN EDITION ALMOST AS RARE AS THE FIRST. THE MAPS ARE FROM THE SAME PLATES WITHOUT CHANGE, EVEN TO THE IMPRINTS."

THE REFERENCE TO MR. EDWARD WRIGHT'S PROJECTION "COMMONLY CALLED MERCATORS CHART" IS INTERESTING. ALTHOUGH GERARDUS MERCATOR DEVELOPED THIS PROJECTION IN 1569, EDWARD WRIGHT, THE ENGLISH MATHEMATICIAN, FIRST PUBLISHED TABLES FOR ITS CONSTRUCTION IN HIS CERTAINE ERRORS IN NAVIGATION IN 1599.

DATA IS FROM VERNER'S STUDY ON THE ENGLISH PILOT THE FOURTH BOOK, FROM THROWER AND FROM SABIN.

EDITION & STATE INFO : THIS CHART HAS NOT BEEN THOROUGHLY RESEARCHED FOR ITS VARIOUS EDITIONS AND STATES BECAUSE OF ITS UNIMPORTANCE TO A MARYLAND/CHESAPEAKE COLLECTION.

HFC OWNERSHIP DATA : THE HUNTINGFIELD COLLECTION HAS A GOOD BLACK AND WHITE COPY OF THIS CHART ON COARSE PAPER, TAKEN FROM THE 1767 BOULTER GRIERSON PIRATED EDITION OF THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE ENGLISH PILOT. THE BOOK, MINUS SEVERAL MAPS, WAS GIVEN TO YALE UNIVERSITY. THE MAP HAS AN ACQ. # OF ASON018-UNHLQ* AND A MDHR # OF MSA SC1399-453.

BIBLIGRAPHICAL REFS. : PHILLIPS, PHILIP LEE, A LIST OF GEOGRAPHICAL ATLASES IN THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, AMSTERDAM: THEATRVM ORBIS TERRARVM, LTD., 1971 REPRINT OF A 1909 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PUBLICATION, I, # 1162 MAP [23]; VERNER, COOLIE, A CARTO-BIBLIOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF THE ENGLISH PILOT THE FOURTH BOOK WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE CHARTS OF VIRGINIA, CHARLOTTESVILLE: BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, 1960: 23-25; THROWER, J.W. NORMAN, "EDMOND HALLEY AND THEMATIC GEO-CARTOGRAPHY", IN THE COMPLEAT PLATTMAKER, EDITED BY NORMAN J.W. THROWER, BERKELEY: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS, 1978: 216; SABIN, JOSEPH, A DICTIONARY OF BOOKS RELATING TO AMERICA FROM ITS DISCOVERY TO THE PRESENT TIME, NEW YORK: JOSEPH SABIN, 1868-1936: # 22619.

March 14, 1991


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