1780 Bowles / Lewis Evans Map of the Middle British Colonies

A fine example of the 1780 Carington Bowles edition of the Lewis Evans map of the Middle British Colonies - one of the most important maps to emerge out of the French and Indian War (1754 - 1763). Essentially a piracy of a piracy, this is the Carington Bowles 1780 piracy of the 1771 Kitchen/Jefferys piracy of the 1755 Lewis Evans map - here given new relevance in the context of the American Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783). There are numerous subtle changes over earlier editions although the essential Lewis Evans chart - the finest and most comprehensive treatment of the Trans-Appalachia and the Ohio Valley from the French and Indian War through the Revolutionary period - remains the core. Pre-release editions of this map were circulated among British officers, including Major-General Edward Braddock (1695 - 1755), who consulted them during his disastrous 1755 expedition against the French-occupied Ohio River Valley (he was killed in the effort - but not for lack of cartographic reconnaissance).

The Lewis Evans Map

Lewis Evans produced his 1755 map in the context of the French and Indian War. While the Ohio Valley was little traveled and only tenuously understood, it was clear that control of the vast territory was the definitive next step in expansion of colonial power in America. As described by a contemporary, James Maury, in his 1756 Huguenot Family,

It is but small, not above half as large as Fry and Jefferson's, consequently crowded. It gives an attentive peruser a clear idea of the value of the now contested lands and waters to either of the two competitor princes, together with a proof, amounting to more than a probability, that of the two who shall remain master of the Ohio and the Lakes must in the course of a few years become sole and absolute lord of North America.

Evans himself writes on the map, just southeast of Long Island,

Were nothing at Stake between the Crown of Great Britain and France but the Lands on the Ohio we may recon it as great a Prize as has ever been contended for between two nations. For this Country is of that vast Extent Westwards as to exceed in good Land all the European Dominions of Great Britain, France, and Spain and which are almost destitute of Inhabitants. It is impossible to conceive that had his Majesty been made acquainted with its vales and great Importance the large Stride the French have been making for several years past in their Incroachments on his Dominions that his Majesty would Sacrifice one of the best Gems in his Crown to their Usurpation and boundless Ambition.

Sources

Evans did not personally travel to the Ohio, but he did spend time in the Pennsylvania hinterland and around the Finger Lakes as a surveyor and naturalist, and while working for Thomas Penn on the Pennsylvania-Maryland Border Dispute. In the course of that work, he befriended many travelers who had explored the Trans-Appalachia. For his map, he consulted earlier maps and dredged new data from the accounts of these explorers, military men, trappers, and traders. He relied extensively on the journals of William Franklin for the Ohio, as well as Joshua Fry (c. 1700 - 1754), and fur traders Joseph Dobson, Alexander Maginty, and. Alexander Lowery. He pulls data from William West regarding the course of the Potomac and John Davidson for the Cayúga River. These are just a few of his rich pool of sources.

A Closer Look

The resulting map surpassed any that preceded it and was praised by contemporaries over the great John Mitchell map, which appeared in the same year. Although embracing from the Middle Atlantic seaboard and Narragansett Bay nearly as far west as the Mississippi, and from Montreal to the Chesapeake, the map's focus is on the Ohio Valley and the Ontario-Erie corridor. Detail is at once rich and sparce. Data follows the course of the major river systems, with little content away from navigable waterways. He does, however, note the lands of various First Nation peoples - central players in the ongoing war. As both a naturalist and a patriot, Evans also identifies mineral deposits, salt springs, and other data, included to emphasize the resource and travel value of the Ohio Valley. At one point on the lower Ohio, he even identifies the fascinating discovery of 'Elephants Bones', doubtless the fossil remains of an American Mastodon. Evans further adds extensive annotations dealing with geography, indigenous peoples, political issues, and climate.

Publication History and Census

This map has a long and complex publication history due in part to Evans' death in 1756, its piracy by multiple publishers, and its ongoing significance covering a period of almost fifty years. Evans first published the map in 1755 (although copies were circulating as early as 1754). That edition was printed in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin and D. Hall. It was followed by a series of eighteen subsequent maps (total nineteen), including piracies by Jefferys, Kitchen, Carington Bowles (this example), Bowles and Carver, and reissues of the original Evans map by Thomas Pownall. According to the Sevens analysis (Lewis Evans, his Map), this is state sixteen, the second Bowles issue. While in aggregate the multiple editions of Evans' map are well represented institutionally, specific examples of the 1780 edition are scarce, making it one of the rarer states. We note separate examples of this edition at the Library of Virginia, Yale University, and the Huntington Library. Rarer still on the market.