Old Hampshire Mapped

Taylor's Hampshire 1759
Introduction
The whole map

Introduction
 These notes are made from a '1 inch to 1 mile' map of Hampshire surveyed by Isaac Taylor, engraved by R Benning, published 1759. The item used is in the Map Collection of Hampshire CC Museums Service, item HMCMS:FA2004.3.

The map was published in 6 sheets (The sheets in the Map Collection have curious numbering; the plan was to number from the bottom left, but because the bottom right sheet had the title it was made number 1 and bottom left became 2, thus:-
5   6 3   4 2   1
Lower right on sheet 1 is a scroll cartouche with dedications, title, etc:-
With Submission / TO His Grace the Duke of Bolton, His Grace the Duke of Bedford, /His Grace the Duke of Chandos, The Rt. Honble. the Marqs. of Winchester. / And in particular manner to / The Right Honble. the Earl of Portsmouth, / Sir Monoux Cope Bart. Sir Thos. Heathcote Bart. Sir John Oglander Bart. Sr. Jno. Barrington Bart. / Sir Edward Worsley Knt. Alexdr. Thistlethwaite Esqr. Poulet St. John Esqr. Hans. Stanley Esqr. / Joshua Iremonger Esqr. Willm. Huggins Esqr. Thos. Missing Esqr. William Jolliffe Esqr. / The Revd. Dr. Hoadley. Revd. Dr. Cheney. Revd. Dr. Burton. Revd. Mr. Exton. Revd. Mr. Woodroffe. / In grateful remembrance of the kind Assistance in this Work / and the many particular Favours they have honoured me with / This Map of Hampshire, / Including the ISLE of WIGHT, / Is most Humbly Dedicated / BY, Their most obliged humble Servant, / Isaac Taylor. / Augst. 20th. 1759. / Estate are accurately Survey'd and / Maps of them neatly drawn at the / customary Prices.
The cartouche is continued below into a drawing of warrior and maiden in classical dress, but with cannon and cannonballs as well as spears and shields, anchor, ships in a harbour, ...

The sheets in the Map Collection are loose sheets. They were folded and pasted in 18th century guard book which also contained county maps of Cornwall, Dorset, and the Isle of Wight, and som egeneral maps. The map sizes are, sheets 1..4, wxh, sheet = 73x54.5 cm, sheets 5 and 6, wxh, sheet = 73x56cm.

part sheets The scanned images present the map in 8 pieces per sheet, 4 across by 2 up; the whole map numbered from 1,1 at bottom left, to 8,6 at top right. Each image has overlaps with the adjacent sheets at the edges.

lat and long Notice that longitude is not measured from Greenwich. The map covers 0d 28m W to 1d 44m W, 50d 33m N to 51d 29m N, according to the map's scales; there is no statement of the prime meridian. Winchester is plotted at about 1d 8 1/2m W 51d 3 1/4m N putting his prime meridian 10 degrees W of Greenwich. (This is not St Paul's or Westminster Abbey or the Houses of Parliament. Tyburn is about the right longitude?).

scale In a cartouche on sheet 2 there is a scale line:-
A Scale of Statute Miles
The scale line is engraved on a stone block on a monumental sculpture with surveying tools and cherubs ... There is a globe atop, an alidade? dividers, plane table? chain, ruler? theodoliite? and lots of scroll work. One of the cherubs is ?drawing a map. The scale line has 4 miles = 99.4 mm giving a map scale 1 to 64762, ie the scale is about:-
1 to 65000
1 mile to 1 inch

premium It is worth remembering that from 1759 the Royal Society offered a premium:-
... not exceeding one hundred Pounds, as a Gratuity to any Person or Persons, who shall make an accurate Survey of any County upon the Scale of one Inch to a Mile ...
The sea coasts to be accurately drawn with latitudes and longitudes; satisfactory proofs of accuracy required; ... Isaac Taylor was the first to try, and the first to fail to win a prize; but his map is splendid and useful for all that. The premiums were a stimulus to remapping the country in these sensible units, counties, at this then new large scale. It is also worth noting that William Roy, writing to George III, 1766 remarks:-
THESE County Maps are sufficiently exact, in what regards their geometrical measurement, for common purposes, but are extremely defective with respect to the topographical represenation of the ground, giving scarcely any Idea, or at least but an imperfect one, of what is remarkably strong or weak in the nature of the Country.

Although this map is an important source of information, useful when interpretting the contents of other maps, there is no intention to analyse this map at the present stage of the Old Hampshire Mapped project; it falls outside the main focus of the project which is on single sheet county maps.
Taylor's Hampshire 1759, contents
Map HMCMS:FA2004.3
General index
Old Hampshire Mapped
Other Historic Hampshire Resources