Handsome Atlas with Instructional Map of North America showing California as an Island
Edward Wells was a mathematician and geography professor at Oxford, where he attended Christ Church on scholarship. He produced numerous works on a range of subjects, including scientific books on astronomy, chronology, and geography. While some of the maps were originally published in 1699, the complete atlas was first available in 1700, and was reprinted thereafter in dated editions of 1701, 1702, 1704, 1714, 1718, 1722, and in undated editions.
Wells prepared this atlas primarily as an instructional aid for schools, and the work is dedicated to the Duke of Glocester, second in line to the throne of England when the maps were originally drafted, who was then attending school in Oxford. Gloucester died of a sudden fever in 1700, bringing about a succession crisis which was resolved with the Act of Settlement of 1701, the legislation that made way for the House of Hanover. Later editions of the atlas retained the dedication, despite Gloucester’s death.
Five of the maps directly relate to America:
[1]. A New Map of the Terraqueous Globe according to the ancient discoveries...
[2]. A New Map of the Terraqueous Globe ... according to the latest discoveries...
[39]. A New Map of North America ...
[40]. A New Map of South America ...
[41]. A New Map of the Plantations of the English in America.
The present copy of the atlas includes a nice example of the first state of Edward Wells’ map of North America.
The map shows the entirety of the North American continent, or as much as was then known to Europeans. In general outline, the map follows Louis Hennepin’s Carte d’un tres grand Pays entre le Nouveau Mexique (1697) and his Carte d’un tres grand Pais (1697). Hennepin’s influence is especially evident in the Mississippi River area, which its origin in Texas, and the eastern seaboard; Hennepin’s name is directly mentioned near the Great Lakes. Wagner styles the map of the Briggs-Blaeu-Coronelli type.
However, Wells also called on other sources, so as to include recent details like the French settlement at Biloxi in 1699, marked here as “New French Settlement” near the Gulf of Mexico. He also deviates from Hennepin in the shape and course of the Ohio River. Here it is called the Hotico River and runs east-west, alongside the also east-west, and surprisingly long, Appalachian Mountains.
The Eastern seaboard contains the latest settlements and is split into colonies including Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, New England, and continuing north to New Scotland and New Foundland. Towns include Charlestown, Jamestown, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Milford, Plymouth, Boston, and others.
French presence is downplayed on the map in favor of English, as can be seen with the small size of New France and the blocking of the French from access to the Gulf of Mexico. The territories are drawn so as to maximize English possession. For example, the island of California is labeled New Albion, after the point named by Francis Drake on his circumnavigation in 1577. Mainland New Mexico is “of a barren soil and little known.” To the north, New Brittain, New South Wales, and New North Wales squish New France, allowing English access to the “Northern Unknown Continent” and the “Parts as Yet Unknown” in the Pacific Northwest.
Besides the geographic features there is a quaint abbreviations cartouche to help the young reader discern the various bays, mountains, and archbishoprics. There are also helpful annotations around the map, citing dates of first European contact and demarking which monarchy nominally controlled which areas.
In the Pacific Northwest, covering the parts unknown, is an elaborate cartouche topped with the coat of arms of the Prince William, Duke of Gloucester.
Interestingly, the main street in the then newly established capital of Williamsburg, Virginia, was named after the young Prince.
New Map of the Most Considerable Plantations of the English in America
The map of the British Plantations is an interesting overview of the British Colonies in North America at the beginning of the 1700s, with insets of Bermuda, Barbados, the Carolinas, Jamaica and Nova Scotia. While New England has a relatively simple appearance about it, it is one of the earliest obtainable folio size English language maps of New England and the Northeast.
Wells also published a textbook which complemented the present atlas: A Treatise of Antient and Present Geography (1701).
A fascinating mix of geographic instruction and fancy intended for a student audience. This atlas offers a glimpse into eighteenth-century geographical instruction.
Edward Wells was a Church of England clergyman and advocate for education. He published prolifically, including several atlases of the ancient and contemporary world. Wells was the son of a vicar and entered Christ Church, Oxford in late 1686. He graduated BA in 1690, MA in 1693, and worked as a tutor at his college from 1691 to 1702. Then, he entered into a living at Cotesbach, Leicestershire, from where he continued to publish his many works. He attained the degrees of BD and DD in 1704, after he was already at Cotesbach.
From roughly 1698 onward, Wells wrote many sermons, books, and atlases. He focused on catechismal and pastoral works, as well as educational books. For example, some of his first works were mathematics texts for young gentlemen, which included how to use globes and determine latitude and longitude. He also translated classical and Christian texts, sometimes adding geographical annotations.
His descriptive geographies were not overly original works, but they were popular in their time. First, he produced a Treatise of Antient and Present Geography in 1701; it went on to four more editions. Next was a Historical Geography of the New Testament (1708), accompanied by a Historical Geography of the Old Testament (1711-12).