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1815 Bouchette Masterplan of Lower Canada (Ontario) and Lake Champlain
LowerCanada-bouchette-1815The small, dotted lines within the Townships shew the granted parts thereof. The lots which are shaded dark are reserved for the maintenance and support of the Protestant Clergy within the Province, and those of a lighter shade reserved for the future disposition of his Majesty.The map is titled in an impressive, engraved cartouche in the lower right. The cartouche features illustrations of Canadian flora, Niagara Falls, and indigenous peoples set around the title and a panoramic view of Quebec City from across the St. Lawrence.
The interior of Lower Canada being so little known beyond the limits of the Province, a belief that a detailed account of it would not only be useful in shewing its present state, but by bringing it under more general notice, might possibly assist in the development of its vast resources, has led to the construction of a topographical map upon a large scale…Thus, writes historian Don Thomson (Men and Meridians),
In 1814 a committee of the legislature of Lower Canada recommended that he be granted £1,500 in aid of his proposed publication of a map-illustrated catalogue of information on the Province. That summer, supported by a £500 advance on the grant, Lieut.-Colonel Bouchette again proceeded to England.When Bouchette arrived in Europe, the Ghent negotiations to end the War of 1812 were in progress. His cartographic expertise was harnessed by the British authorities, who made him a special surveyor under the Ghent Provisions Article 5 to work out, along with an American counterpart, a firm Canada-US border. While this map was not yet published, there can be no doubt that it, in its manuscript or proof form, was utilized in these negotiations, being by far the best cartographic representation of the U.S.-Canada borderlands obtainable and the work of one of the chief contracted surveyors.
Joseph Bouchette (May 14, 1774 - April 8, 1841) was a British Canadian military officer and cartographer. Bouchette was born in Quebec City, the son of Jean-Baptiste Bouchette, a military topographer and naval officer, and Marie Angelique Duhamel, daughter of Julien Duhamel (1723 - 1778). During the American Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783), Joseph's father famously saved the life of General Guy Carleton (1724 - 1808), Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in North America, navigating him and his family along the Saint Lawrence River from Montreal, through the American lines, to Quebec. This accomplishment has significant ramifications for both the war, reversing the outcome of the 1775 Battle of Quebec, and the Bouchette family, earning Bouchette a grant of 6,000 acres and a significant military promotion. Joseph, now practically a nobleman, followed his father as a topographer and naval officer. He initially studied art and architecture under François Baillairgé (1759 - 1830), but in 1790, after a short and distinguished naval career, Bouchette entered the service of his (now elderly) uncle Samuel Holland (1728 - 1801), the first Surveyor-General of British North America. He moved to Quebec to work at the Surveyor General's offices and found the offices in disarray. Bouchette took on the task of reorganizing the offices, earning him the official position of Surveyor-General after Holland's death. With Charles Burton Wyatt, Bouchette resurveyed Lower Canada from 1805 to 1807. This work was compiled and published in 1815 as the Topographical Description of the Province of Lower Canada, which was the sum of all contemporaneous knowledge of the territory. He held the position of Surveyor General until 1826 when he retired, and the position was taken up by his son, Joseph-Francis Bouchette (1800 - 1881). After he died in 1841, he was entombed in Montreal's Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery. More by this mapmaker...
William Faden (July 11, 1749 - March 21, 1836) was a Scottish cartographer and map publisher of the late 18th century. Faden was born in London. His father, William MacFaden, was a well-known London printer and publisher of The Literary Magazine. During the Jacobite Rebellion (1745 - 1746), MacFaden changed his family name to Faden, to avoid anti-Scottish sentiment. Faden apprenticed under the engraver James Wigley (1700 - 1782), attaining his freedom in 1771 - in the same year that Thomas Jefferys Sr. died. While Thomas Jefferys Sr. was an important and masterful mapmaker, he was a terrible businessman and his son, Jefferys Jr. had little interest building on his father's legacy. MacFaden, perhaps recognizing an opportunity, acquired his son a partnership in the Jefferys firm, which subsequently traded as 'Faden and Jefferys'. Jefferys Jr. also inherited Jefferys Sr. title, 'Geographer to the King and to the Prince of Wales'. With little interest in cartography or map publishing Jefferys Jr. increasingly took a back seat to Faden, withdrawing completely from day-to-day management, although retaining his finical stake, by 1776. The American Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783) proved to be a boomtime for the young 'Geographer to the King', who leveraged existing materials and unpublished manuscript maps to which he had access via his official appointment, to publish a wealth of important maps, both for official wartime use and for the curious public. This period of prosperity laid financial underpinning for Faden, who by 1783, at the end of the war, acquired full ownership of the firm and removed the Jefferys imprint. In 1801, he engraved and published the first maps for the British Ordnance Survey. By 1822, Faden published over 350 maps, atlases, and military plans. He retired in 1823, selling his places to James Wyld Sr. Faden died in 1836. Learn More...
John Walker (1787 - April 19, 1873) was a British map seller, engraver, lithographer, hydrographer, geographer, draughtsman, and publisher active in London during the 19th century. Walker published both nautical charts and geographical maps. His nautical work is particularly distinguished as he was an official hydrographer for the British East India Company, a position, incidentally, also held by his father of the same name. Walker's maps, mostly published after 1827, were primarily produced with his brothers Charles Walker and Alexander Walker under the imprint J. and C. Walker. Among their joint projects are more than 200 maps for the influential Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge Atlas (SDUK). In addition they published numerous charts for James Horsburgh and the British Admiralty Hydrographic Office, including Belcher's important map of Hong Kong and Carless' exploratory map of Karachi. The J. and C. Walker firm continued to publish after both Walkers died in the 1870s. Learn More...
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This copy is copyright protected.
Copyright © 2024 Geographicus Rare Antique Maps