Herman Moll (1654 - 1732) was an important 18th century map publisher and engraver based in London and Holland. Moll's origins are disputed with some suggesting he was born in the Netherlands and others Germany - the Moll name was common in both countries during this period. Most likely Moll was a German from Bremen, as his will, friends, and contemporaries suggest. What is known for certain is that he moved to London in 1678, possibly fleeing the Scanian War, where he worked as an engraver for Moses Pitt and other London map publishers. Around the turn of the century, Moll set up his own shop where he produced a large corpus of work known for its high quality and decorative flair. As a new émigré to England, Moll made himself more English than the English, and through his cartography proved a fierce advocate for his adopted nation. Most of Moll's early maps were issued as loose sheets that would be bound to order, however, he did publish several important atlases late in his career. Moll is said to have made the bold claim that without a doubt "California is an Island" and that he "had in [his] office mariners who have sailed round it." While California may not be an island (yet), it is true that moll had talent for attracting interesting friends and acquaintances. He frequented London's first stock exchange, Jonathan's Coffeehouse at Number 20 Exchange Alley, Cornhill. At the time Jonathan's was known as "a place of very considerable concourse for Merchants, sea faring Men and other traders" (Erleigh, The Viscount, The South Sea Bubble, Manchester: Peter Davies, Ltd., 1933, 21). Eventually this activity attracted the interest of stock brokers, who inspired by sailor's tales, sponsored the ill-fated South Sea Company, the world's first stock bubble. Moll's close circle, mostly from the Coffee House, included scientist Robert Hooke, the writers Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe) and Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels), the pirates William Dampier, William Hacke and Woodes Rogers, and the archeologist William Stukeley. Herman Moll's work was highly regarded for its decorative beauty and was pirated, most notably by the Irish publisher George Grierson, both in his lifetime and after his 1732 death at St. Clement Danes, London. More by this mapmaker...

William Dampier (1651 - 1715) was an English navigator, explorer, naturalist, and privateer (pirate) who was the first person to circumnavigate the globe three times, being the first Englishman to leave a written account of Australia. Born in Somerset, Dampier was educated at King's School, Bruton, before traveling on merchant vessels bound for Newfoundland and Java and then joining the Royal Navy. He tried his hand at various businesses in the New World, but in 1679 joined up with English buccaneers raiding Spanish interests in the Americas and East Indies. In 1691, Dampier returned to England short on money and prospects; he was also apparently court-martialed by the Royal Navy for imprisoning one of his lieutenants in Brazil. But he was able to publish his A New Voyage Round the World in 1697, a work that strongly influenced Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Damiel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Dampier was commissioned as a commander in the Royal Navy during the War of the Spanish Succession and tasked with raiding Spain's Manila Galleons. He continued to raid Spanish ships with limited success until 1711 and died in 1715 in London. Learn More...