1775 Sayer and Bennett chart of the Gulf of St. Lawrence (with surveys of James Cook)

Robert Sayer (1725 - January 29, 1794) was an important English map publisher and engraver active from the mid to late 18th century. Sayer was born in Sunderland, England, in 1725. He may have clerked as a young man with the Bank of England, but this is unclear. His brother, James Sayer, married Mary Overton, daughter-in-law of John Overton and widow of Philip Overton. Sayer initially worked under Mary Overton, but by December of 1748 was managing the Overton enterprise and gradually took it over, transitioning the plates to his own name. When Thomas Jefferys went bankrupt in 1766, Sayer offered financial assistance to help him stay in business and, in this way, acquired rights to many of the important Jefferys map plates as well as his unpublished research. From about 1774, he began publishing with his apprentice, John Bennett (fl. 1770 - 1784), as Sayer and Bennett, but the partnership was not formalized until 1777. Bennett retired in 1784 following a mental collapse and the imprint reverted to Robert Sayer. From 1790, Sayer added Robert Laurie and James Whittle to his enterprise, renaming the firm Robert Sayer and Company. Ultimately, Laurie and Whittle partnered to take over his firm. Sayer retired to Bath, where, after a long illness, he died. During most of his career, Sayer was based at 53 Fleet Street, London. His work is particularly significant for its publication of many British maps relating to the American Revolutionary War. Unlike many map makers of his generation, Sayer was a good businessman and left a personal fortune and great estate to his son, James Sayer, who never worked in the publishing business. More by this mapmaker...

John Bennett (1746 - December 8, 1787) was an English map publisher. He was born in Derbyshire, the son of Tideswell shoemaker Samuel Bennett. He moved to London around 1761 to take work as a servant to the mapmaker Robert Sayer (1725 - 1794). In 1765, he became Sayer's formal apprentice. Bennett entered the Free Stationers guild on June 7, 1774. Bennett and Sayer continued to work together on the understanding that, in time, Bennett would acquire equity in the firm. This occurred in 1777, when the firm was renamed 'Sayer and Bennett'. For the next several years, they ran one of the most prolific map and printmaking firms in Europe. Bennett began to show signs of mental instability around 1781 and by 1783, was admitted to an asylum in Clapton. The causes are unknown, but mercury poising is a real possibility. Sayer petitioned to dissolve the partnership in 1784 and by 1785 there are no further publications bearing the 'Bennett' imprint. He died in Islington in 1787. Learn More...

Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 - 14 February 1779) is a seminal figure in the history of cartography for which we can offer only a cursory treatment here. Cook began sailing as a teenager in the British Merchant Navy before joining the Royal Navy in 1755. He was posted in America for a time where he worked Samuel Holland, William Bligh, and others in the mapping of the St. Lawrence River and Newfoundland. In 1766 Cook was commissioned to explore the Pacific and given a Captaincy with command of the Endeavour. What followed were three historic voyages of discovery, the highlights of which include the first European contact with eastern Australia, the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands (among many other Polynesian groups), the first circumnavigation of New Zealand, some of the first sightings of Antarctica, the first accurate mapping of the Pacific Northwest, and ultimately his own untimely death at the hands of angry Hawaiians in 1779. The influence of Cook work on the mapping and exploration of the Pacific cannot be understated. Learn More...