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Description

The First Definitive British Mapping of the St. Lawrence River From Jeffery's American Atlas.

Highly detailed set of maps on a single sheet, comprising the whole of the St. Lawrence River, from Quebec to the sea, including contiguous islands and significant navigational points of interest.

The information here was originally compiled by Thomas Jefferys in 1757, primarily from French sources. The north bank was drawn directly from the Jean Deshayes highly influential survey of 1695, and the south shore was from d'Anville's map of 1755.

Jean Deshays came to Quebec in 1685 to assist Jacques Cassini in observing the eclipse in order to plot longitude. During Deshays time in Canada he made the first hydrographic survey of the St. Lawrence. He returned to publish it in 1695 with Nicolas de Fer as printer. Deshays received appointment as first Hydrographer of New France and returned to Quebec in 1702, where he remained until his death.

Inset maps include:

  • The Seven Islands
  • A Continuation of the River from Quebec to Lake Ontario taken from the Original Published at Paris by Mr. D'Anville in 1755
  • St. Nicholas or English Harbor
  • A View of the Lands from Cape Torment to the Butt
  • The Traverse or Passage from Cape Torment into the South Channel of Orleans Island
  • The Road of Tadousac
Thomas Jefferys Biography

Thomas Jefferys (ca. 1719-1771) was a prolific map publisher, engraver, and cartographer based in London. His father was a cutler, but Jefferys was apprenticed to Emanuel Bowen, a prominent mapmaker and engraver. He was made free of the Merchant Taylors’ Company in 1744, although two earlier maps bearing his name have been identified. 

Jefferys had several collaborators and partners throughout his career. His first atlas, The Small English Atlas, was published with Thomas Kitchin in 1748-9. Later, he worked with Robert Sayer on A General Topography of North America (1768); Sayer also published posthumous collections with Jefferys' contributions including The American Atlas, The North-American Pilot, and The West-India Atlas

Jefferys was the Geographer to Frederick Prince of Wales and, from 1760, to King George III. Thanks especially to opportunities offered by the Seven Years' War, he is best known today for his maps of North America, and for his central place in the map trade—he not only sold maps commercially, but also imported the latest materials and had ties to several government bodies for whom he produced materials.

Upon his death in 1771, his workshop passed to his partner, William Faden, and his son, Thomas Jr. However, Jefferys had gone bankrupt in 1766 and some of his plates were bought by Robert Sayer (see above). Sayer, who had partnered in the past with Philip Overton (d. 1751), specialized in (re)publishing maps. In 1770, he partnered with John Bennett and many Jefferys maps were republished by the duo.