Mapping Massachusetts, 1750-1801

The second half of the 18th century saw marked transitions in American mapmaking - stimulated initially by the requirements of the British colonial administration and later by those of the state government. First, there was a shift of emphasis from delineating external boundaries to documenting internal geographic, cultural and political detail. In a second development, the job of mapmaking was taken over by professionals who introduced the ideal of a systematic regional survey conducted to uniform standards.
MAPPING THE INTERIOR
Prior to 1750 printed maps provided only the sketchiest view of the Massachusetts interior. All this changed with the appearance of William Douglass' seminal "Plan of the British dominions of New England in North America" (ca. 1753). Based on original surveys, the Plan was a staggering advance over earlier maps of the region.
Of primary importance was Douglass' integration of official surveys and recent administrative decisions to show for the first time the rapidly growing matrix of township boundaries as well as many of the smaller lakes, rivers and streams. His map is striking for its contrast between the densely settled areas East of the Connecticut River and the relatively empty region to the West. "Plan of the British dominions" is also the first to map accurately Massachusetts' external borders. In particular, he depicted the 1740 resolution of a long-running boundary dispute between Massachusetts and New Hampshire. This resulted in the boundary being set at three miles north of the Merrimack River as far as Pawtucket Falls, from which point it ran directly west.
The Douglass map is extremely rare, but far more accessible is Braddock Mead's "Map of the Most Inhabited Part of New England," published by Thomas Jefferys in 1755. Mead's map follows rather closely that of Douglass, though with some significant improvements. For example, in Massachusetts Mead added new place names (such as "Pentusok," now Pittsfield), introduced county boundaries, and linked Cape Ann to the mainland whereas Douglass had depicted it as an island.
ENTER THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS
Following the Revolution, the government of Massachusetts urgently required an accurate map for at least three administrative objectives: calculating tax allotments to the towns based on land valuations, supporting the sale of public land to pay off war debts, and informing infrastructure development. Existing maps were too outdated and small scale to be of use. For example, dozens of townships established after the 1750s were not shown on the Douglass and Mead maps.
This presented the legislature with a dilemma, as public funding for a State Map would have been prohibitively expensive. So in 1774 it resorted to an unfunded mandate, requiring each town in Massachusetts to conduct a survey of its territory and submit a plan to the Secretary of State. These would then be compiled and where necessary reconciled to produce the official map.
The Resolve stipulated a number of quality requirements for the plans. They were to be at a uniform scale of 200 rods (ca. 3300 feet) to the inch, and township boundaries were to be carefully delineated as to length and compass bearing. They were to depict also many features of the natural and human landscape, including "...the names and course of rivers, the bridges over rivers, the course of county roads, the situation of houses for public worship, Court-Houses,... the breadth of rivers, the number and reputed magnitude of ponds, the falls of water, mountains, manufactories, mills, mines and minerals, and of what sort, iron-works and furnaces..."
Though specific regarding content, the Resolve said little about methods. In particular, there was no reference to the advanced tools and techniques in use by European surveyors in North America as early as the 1750s. Presumably these were far beyond the limited financial and human resources of the individual towns. Consequently the hundreds of plans ultimately submitted were highly variable in terms of both accuracy and detail.
In 1797 Osgood Carleton, a Boston mathematician and mapmaker, and John Norman, a printer and mapmaker also based in Boston, were commissioned to compile and print the State Map. They were to receive no compensation, though after delivering 400 copies for official use they were free to profit from whatever sales they could generate. This model of state-local-private partnership was similar to one used by Vermont in 1790 and later adopted by New Hampshire 1803.
"An Accurate Map of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts" was published in 1798, with a vastly improved edition issued in 1801 and 1802 under the new title Map of Massachusetts Proper. For sheer volume of information this beautiful production represents a great advance over the Douglass and Mead maps. At 4 miles to the inch it is on a larger scale than any previous map of the region. This enables it to depict for the first time the road network, schools, meeting houses, and court houses, as well as the locations of key natural resources. It also provides a far stronger depiction of the complex pond, lake and river systems of the state. Finally, it reflects the rapid pace of settlement, with the region west of the Connecticut River now shown completely subdivided into dozens of new townships.
MAPS BY BRITISH MILITARY SURVEYORS
The maps discussed hitherto form a distinct evolutionary thread. Their content, with the emphasis on political boundaries, natural resources and (in the Carleton map) economic activity, reflected the twin goals of administration and economic development. They were largely indigenous efforts, compiled from dozens of local surveys by Americans with modest training and few resources at their disposal.
After the French and Indian War, the British were left in control of all lands east of the Mississippi. They were well aware that existing maps were ill suited to the tasks of administering and defending these vast holdings. As the Privy Council wrote to George III in 1764: "We find ourselves under the greatest difficulties arising from the want of exact surveys of these counties in America... and, in this situation, we are reduced to the necessity of making Representations to your Majesty, founded upon little or no information."
Consequently, the years between 1764 and 1775 saw a rush of mapmaking by military engineers in British employ. This effort represented an entirely new approach to mapping North America. The long-term goal was a "geodetic" survey of all British holdings, modeled on state-of-the-art practice in Europe. The foundation of this method was the use of astronomical observations to determine the precise location of a few "control points." With these as a basis, careful measurements and basic trigonometry were used to establish hundreds or thousands of secondary locations over a large region. When combined with precise instruments and the painstaking checking of data, this method yielded strikingly accurate results.
Though this grand endeavor was halted by the Revolution, in Massachusetts substantial advances were made both along the coast and in the western third of the province. Rather in contrast to their indigenous counterparts discussed above, the resulting maps were above all about mobility, either of ships at sea or armies and commerce on land. Consequently there was a heavy emphasis on features that enabled or hindered movement-oundings, navigational aids and hazards at sea, and roads, elevations, and waterways inland.
By far the most successful effort was a survey of the North American coast from Newfoundland to the Gulf of Mexico. The New England component of the project was overseen by Samuel Holland, Surveyor General of the Northern District, and the resulting charts were published by Joseph Des Barres in "The Atlantic Neptune" (1775 and later). The "Neptune" includes several charts that, in terms of scale, detail and accuracy, are landmarks in the mapping of coastal Massachusetts.
Though intended for the use of mariners, the charts in the "Neptune" provide extensive topographical detail often extending several miles inland. Whereas the indigenous maps of Douglass and Carleton concentrated on political boundaries and economic resources, however, here the focus is on minute features of the natural and man-made topography. For example, the chart of Boston Harbor depicts roads, dwellings, farm and field boundaries, foliation, and slopes and areas of elevation. Similar charts covered the North and South shores of Massachusetts, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
Western Massachusetts was included on several important new maps in the 1760s and -70s, though only Claude Joseph Sauthier's "Chorographical Map of the Province of New-York" (1779) provides substantial new information about this area. This map focuses on the strategic Hudson River valley, but also depicts much of western New England including Massachusetts as far east as the Connecticut River. Unique among early maps of the area, Sauthier used hachuring to provide extensive detail of elevations and slopes. He also showed many roads, rivers and streams not depicted elsewhere.