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New England at the Outset of the Revolution.
This finely engraved Carington Bowles map captures New England at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, emphasizing the region's political divisions, physical geography, and immediate military relevance. Originally issued by Bowles in 1765 and reissued here with wartime updates, the map reflects London’s urgent need for clear, strategic intelligence as hostilities escalated in North America.
The sheet covers the British colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, detailing their township boundaries, internal roads, rivers, and lakes. It also charts county lines and contested frontier tracts such as the "Wilderness lands of the Crown not yet appropriated" and “A double line of Towns for a Frontier against the Indians.” The map’s utility for strategic planning is reinforced by an inset plan of Boston at the lower right, identifying redoubts, artillery batteries, and entrenchments active during the siege of 1775–76. This plan corresponds to the British occupation and evacuation of the city and would have allowed the London public to follow the action with precision.
The cartographic foundation lies in Thomas Jefferys’s four-sheet map of New England, engraved in 1755 and widely copied. Bowles reduced the scale to a more manageable single sheet and introduced additional wartime detail. A system of letters in the inset allows for keyed references to defensive positions such as Bunker Hill, Beacon Hill, Boston Neck, and various batteries of 12- and 24-pounders.
States
- 1st state: John Bowles imprint
- 2nd state: Carrington Bowles imprint-1st Jany. 1771.
- 3rd state: New Title: Bowles's Map of the Seat of War in New England; Boston & Environs inset added.
- 4th state: New Title: Bowles's New Pocket Map of the Most Inhabited Part of New England.
- 5th state: Vermont is added, with a note "This States extends Northward to the 45th degree of Latitude.
- 6th state: New Title: Bowles's New One-Sheet Map of New England, comprehending the Provinces . . .; Bowles & Carver imprint
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