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Description

John Senex's edition of the Augustine Hermann Map of the Chesapeake.

An antique map of the Chesapeake Bay from John Senex's edition of Christopher Browne's seminal map. Includes the Delaware Bay, Maryland and parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, this map was first issued in 1685.

Browne's map is the last major derivative of the Augustine Hermann Map of 1673, reoriented with north at the top and reduced to a single folio sheet. Philadelphia appears on the map. The Northern and Eastern boundaries of Maryland are shown. The boundary for Delaware (then part of Pennsylvania) is shown favoring the claims of Lord Baltimore, rather than the Cape Henlopen boundary, which was finally ratified by the British Courts when the dispute was settled in the 1730's and finally mapped by Mason & Dixon several decades later.

New Jersey is divided into East and West Jersey. While the two provinces had been amalgamated in 1702, the resulting land disputes were not completely settled until the adoption of the Lawrence Survey in 1855 by the New Jersey Supreme Court. The shoals and soundings are drawn directly from the Hermann map. The cartouche depicts tobacco and shellfish, two of the significant products of the region during colonial times. This edition is the only edition to include longitudinal lines at the top and bottom of the map.

An essential map for Chesapeake Collectors.

Condition Description
Minor offsetting.
Reference
Stevens & Tree 86c; Stephenson & McKee p.52 & Map II-17; Papenfuse & Coal pp. 19-21; Morrison #24; Sanchez-Saaveda pp. 20-24; Cumming p.293.
John Senex Biography

John Senex (1678-1740) was one of the foremost mapmakers in England in the early eighteenth century. He was also a surveyor, globemaker, and geographer. As a young man, he was apprenticed to Robert Clavell, a bookseller. He worked with several mapmakers over the course of his career, including Jeremiah Seller and Charles Price. In 1728, Senex was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, a rarity for mapmakers. The Fellowship reflects his career-long association as engraver to the Society and publisher of maps by Edmund Halley, among other luminaries. He is best known for his English Atlas (1714), which remained in print until the 1760s. After his death in 1740 his widow, Mary, carried on the business until 1755. Thereafter, his stock was acquired by William Herbert and Robert Sayer (maps) and James Ferguson (globes).