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Rare separately issued map of Jamaica, showing parishes, towns and villages, churches, forts, roads, rivers and ponds, harbors, anchorages, soundings, etc.
Includes an annotation at upper left: "The Negro-towns are Distinguished by a Stroke under the Name." Includes 2 large inset plans of the Harbours of Bluefields and Kingston and Port Royal. These inset maps are also extremely detailed including the names of some plantations.
The map is significantly revised and updated from the 1794 edition by Laurie & Whittle and is far rarer, especially in pocket map format.
Richard Holmes Laurie (1777-1858) was the son of mezzotint engraver Robert Laurie, who had taken over Robert Sayer's publishing house with James Whittle in 1794. Richard Holmes Laurie joined in a partnership with Whittle when his father retired in 1812. The name of the firm then switched from Laurie & Whittle to Whittle & Laurie. Whittle died in 1818, leaving Richard Holmes to continue publishing alone as R. H. Laurie.
When the Hydrographic Office opened in 1795, it was tasked with creating and producing all the nautical charts for the Royal Navy so as to wean the Navy off dependence on foreign charts. By the 1820s, private publishers were augmenting HO charts and competing with them, including Richard Holmes Laurie. Richard gave up publishing anything except nautical materials by 1830. He also sold charts to Trinity House, the lighthouse and maritime safety fraternity. He died in 1858.
The firm continued to print under the name R.H. Laurie even after 1858. Later, the firm was managed by Laurie’s draughtsman, Alexander George Findlay, and, later, Daniel and William Kettle.
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![The West India Islands, and Central America [with] Jamaica](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/78675.jpg)