![[ First Modern Map of Texas Coast ] The Western Coast of Louisiana and The Coast of New Leon By Thomas Jefferys](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/38972.jpg)
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First issue of this highly sought after chart of the coast of Texas.
Jeffery's map is the first map to focus on the coast of Texas. Incorporated into Jeffery's West India Atlas, it was one of a group of maps produced by Jefferys which depicted "the Spanish Lake" in large format, the first large scale English mapping of the region, at a time when control of the region was very much in dobt.
In describing the chart, Jackson notes it is an example of the legacy ofJuan Enriquez Barroto, whose manuscript map of the Gulf in 1687 influenced European cartography for nearly 100 years and Juan Bisente de Campo. At page 138 of Flags Along the Coast, Jackson notes that Barroto's influence is still present in Jeffery's map:
The Texas coast is nothing but a hodge-podge of maps dating back to Enriquez Barroto, Cardenas, and various other Spanish delineators of the early eighteenth century . . . Jefferys relied heavily on sketches and other maps captured by the British from Spanish warships for this part of the Gulf.
An essential map for Texas collectors.
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.
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