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Scarce Revolutionary War plan of Boston and map of the environs of Boston, made for the January 16th, 1776 edition of Town & Country Magazine of London.
The plan of Boston is based on a 1771 drawing of the city just after the Boston Massacre of 1770, showing Boston and Charlestown with the major streets and buildings named, including Faneuil Hall. An encampment of Redcoats are shown right next to a small depiction of the Liberty Tree. The Liberty Tree was an elm tree located at about Washington and Essex streets and used as a meeting place by the Sons of Liberty, who formed after the Stamp Act if 1765. The tree was attacked by British Loyalists in 1775 and burned, but remained a popular symbol, encouraging other colonialists to erect Liberty poles, hung with flags depicting the Liberty Tree. After the massacre, all British soldiers were moved out to a fort on Castle Island to avoid additional unrest.
The second map depicts the neighboring townships, from Ipswich, Gloucester and Cape Ann down to Plymouth, and as far west as Providence and Groton. Issued in the months after Lexington & Concord, Battle of Chelsea Creek, Battle of Gloucester, Burning of Falmouth and the Battle of Bunker Hill, this would have been one of the earliest maps to inform the British public regarding the theater or war around Boston, at at time when Boston was still actively under Siege by the British (April 19, 1775 – March 17, 1776).
A fascinating map from the birth of the United States.
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