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Stock# 77573
Description

With Detailed Engraved Map of the British North American Colonies

This volume of the Annual Register, includes several maps including an interesting map of the British Colonies at the end of the French & Indian War, based upon John Mitchell's seminal map of 1755: 

The New Map of the British Dominions in North America; with the Limits of the Government annexed thereto by the late Treaty of Peace, and settled by Proclamation October 7th, 1763

The map shows the many French and English Forts in the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys, along with numerous Indian Tribes on either side of the Mississippi River.  Includes a large inset showing Florida as an Archipelago. Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia extend to the Mississippi, although Pennsylvania extends west only to Ft. Pitt.

The other maps included in the volume, all folding:

  • An Accurate Map of the Seat of War in the Kingdom of Prussia . . . 
  • A New Map of the Seat of War on the Coat of Malabar, Coromandel, in the Empire of the Great Mogol . . .
  • A New and Correct Chart of the Seat of War, on the Coasts of France, Spain, Portugal and Italy; with the adjacent Coasts & Islands, in the Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.

Several of the articles herein relate to events in America, including:

State of our conquests in North America. Three governments. Reasons for this arrangement. Indians commence hostilities. Causes of the war. Indians neglected. Strength of the English in North America dreaded. State of the savage nations. Revolution amongst themselves. The Indians grow powerful. Iroquois generally quiet. 

Plan of the Indian war. Frontiers of the middle settlements wasted. Forts taken. Indians repulse our troops at Detroit. They attack Fort Pitt. March of colonel Bouquet. Battle of Bushy Run. Indians defeated. Fort Pitt relieved. Engagement near Niagara.

Besides the American content, the volume is filled with interesting articles on world events, as well as notices on literary and scientific topics​. ​​​​

Provenance

This volume was once owned by Elizabeth Digby, and bears her neat armorial bookplate on front pastedown. Digby was the sister of John Benn-Walsh, of Ormathwaite, the noted British Tory politician (1798-1881). 

Condition Description
Octavo. Contemporary speckled calf, red leather spine labels, spine gilt. Expertly rebacked with original spine backstrip laid over new spine. Spines ends worn away. Outer joints with chipping to the leather. Internally clean and nice. Neat 19th century armorial bookplate of Elizabeth Digby. [8], 216; 307, [5] pages plus 4 folding engraved maps.
Thomas Kitchin Biography

Thomas Kitchin was a British cartographer and engraver. Born in Southwark, England, Kitchin was the eldest of several children. He was apprenticed to the map engraver Emanuel Bowen from 1732 to 1739, and he married Bowen’s daughter, Sarah, in December 1739. By 1741 Kitchin was working independently and in 1746 he began taking on apprentices at his firm. His son Thomas Bowen Kitchin was apprenticed to him starting in 1754. By 1755 Kitchin was established in Holborn Hill, where his firm produced all kinds of engraved materials, including portraits and caricatures. He married his second wife, Jane, in 1762. Beginning in 1773 Kitchin was referred to as Hydrographer to the King, a position his son also later held. He retired to St. Albans and continued making maps until the end of his life.

A prolific engraver known for his technical facility, clean lettering, and impressive etched decorations, Kitchin produced several important works throughout his career. He produced John Elphinstone’s map of Scotland in 1746, and the first pocket atlas of Scotland, Geographia Scotiae, in 1748/1749. He co-published The Small English Atlas in 1749 with another of Bowen’s apprentices, Thomas Jefferys. He produced The Large English Atlas serially with Emanuel Bowen from 1749 to 1760. The latter was the most important county atlas since the Elizabethan era, and the first real attempt to cover the whole country at a large scale. In 1755 Kitchin engraved the important John Mitchell map of North America, which was used at the peace treaties of Paris and Versailles. In 1770 he produced the twelve-sheet road map England and Wales and in 1769–70 he produced Bernhard Ratzer’s plans of New York. In 1783, he published The Traveller’s Guide through England and Wales.