Three manuscript maps surveying Lord Fairfax's lands along the Potomac River

[Maps - Potomac River - Fairfax, Thomas]

Date d'édition : 1736

A propos de cet article

[Maps - Potomac River - Fairfax, Thomas] . . . . 1. Winslow, Benjamin. A Plan of the Upper Part of Potomack River called Cohongorooto, survey'd in the Year 1736. Pen and ink with wash on paper. 18 1/2" x 45" sheet, 28" x 55" framed. Titled and signed "Benj. Winslow" lower right-hand corner. . . . 2. [Thomas, James.] A manuscript map of the Potomac River as it runs through Westmoreland County in Virginia. [1737]. Pen and ink with wash on paper. 24 1/4" x 15 3/4" sheet, 33" x 25" framed. . . . 3. Brooke, Robert. A Plan of Potomack River, from the Mouth of Sherrendo, down to Chapawamsick, surveyed in the year 1737. Pen and ink on paper. 25 1/2" x 18" sheet, 35" x 27" framed. Titled and signed "Ro. Brooke" lower right-hand corner. Thomas Fairfax, the 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (1693-1781) was the only British nobleman who lived in America in the decades before Independence. Through his mother's family, the Culpepers (Colepepers) -- his grandfather Thomas Culpeper was governor of the colony of Virginia 1677-1783 -- he came to possess large estates in what is now the Northern Neck of Virginia. Because of rioting in 1682, Culpeper returned to England, was unceremoniously stripped of his governorship by Charles II and forced to sell land to the Crown; the estates in the Northern Neck were all that remained. Because of the uncertainty of the terrain, the language of the deed of sale (between the Rappahannock and "Potomack" from their headwaters to the "Bay of Chesapeyock") was quite vague, and as a result there was a dispute over the exact boundaries of the remaining Culpeper estates. Lord Fairfax therefore employed surveyors -- George Washington's first job was surveying for Fairfax (a distant cousin) -- to establish the real extent of his property. He arrived in 1735 (and would settle at Belvoir in 1747) in order to oversee the process. These three maps are the product of that survey. Each would be transferred to plates and published a decade later they were the fundamental maps of this region, leading eventually to Fry and Jefferson's 1753 map. The maps vary in their aims and therefore their approached. Winslow's is seeking the headwaters of the Potomac, ending at what is now consequently called "Fairfax Stone." Thomas's charts the Potomac closer to its mouth at Chesapeake Bay. Brooke's records individual holdings in the central section of the river -- from northwest of present Washington, DC to Quantico -- including (his no. 44) "Capt. Washingtons," which would go on to be Mount Vernon. See Imago Mundi 64:2 (2012), 258.

N° de réf. du vendeur 6JLR0153

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Three manuscript maps surveying Lord Fairfax's lands along the Potomac River
• Date de parution: 1736
• Reliure: No binding
• Édition: First.
• État de l'article: Near fine
• Signé: Signé par l'auteur
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Manuscript
  • Maps & Atlases
  • Americana