[Mead, Braddock, pseud. of John Green]. The largest and most detailed map of New England that had yet been published

[MEAD, BRADDOCK, PSEUD. OF JOHN GREEN] 

A MAP OF THE MOST INHABITED PART OF NEW ENGLAND CONTAINING THE PROVINCES OF MASSACHUSETS [SIC.] 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, 1774

Copper-engraved map on 4 sheets (sheet size approx: 20 x 19 1/4 in.; 508 x 489 mm, if joined approx: 40 x 39 1/2 in.; 1,016 x 1,003 mm). Original outline color; minor expert repairs to old folds, margins cut to within the plate mark in order to join them.

The largest and most detailed map of New England that had yet been published, by one of the greatest figures in 18th-century cartography: "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" (Cumming, p.47).

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 north to latitude 44'30. 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 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 pictorial title cartouche, depicting the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock in 1620. The present map is the fifth state of this work, and has been significantly updated from the original issue of 1755.

The map's publisher, Thomas Jefferys, was the leading British mapmaker of the mid-eighteenth century. He became the geographer to the Prince of Wales in 1746 and then to King George III in 1760. He published a remarkable number of maps and charts, and is best known for his posthumous work The American Atlas (1775), of which the present map was a part.

REFERENCE:

Crone, "John Green. Notes on a neglected Eighteenth Century Geographer and Cartographer," Imago Mundi, VI:89-91; Crone, "Further Notes on Braddock Mead, alias John Green," Imago Mundi, VIII:69; Cumming, British Maps of Colonial America 45-47; Degrees of Latitude, 35; McCorkle, New England in Early Printed Maps 774.4 and 755.19 (first edition/state); Sellers & Van Ee, Maps & Charts of North America & West Indies 1650-1789 799; Stevens & Tree "Comparative Cartography" in Tooley, Mapping of America, 33(e)