Mostlymaps

Tel: +44 (0)1497 820539
Email: info@mostlymaps.com
Web site: https://www.mostlymaps.com/

A New Map of Great Britain by Herman Moll

RESERVED

Code: 54753



 
Date:1732
 A New Map of Great Britain. According to the Newest and most Exact Observations, Thomas & John Bowles and John King, engraved map on two conjoined sheets with contemporary outline colouring, inset map of Shetland and Orkney Islands, picture frame cartouche, compass rose and descriptive text, old folds, small areas of repair to the verso of the right-hand margin Overall sheet size: 106.2cms x 603.2cms;  614 x 1004 mm. In the note top left Moll states that due to his,’Friends Importunities’ he has ‘composed one map of Great Britain’  in which the,’Royall Borroughs of North Britain are particularly distinguish’d which were never done before’ and a  number of "New Forts" are shown viz Bernera, Kilwhnimen, Ruthsun of Badenoch and Innersnail. The Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland—which at the time were separate states with separate legislatures, but with the same monarch—were, in the words of the Treaty, ‘United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain’ . So the Acts of Union, passed by the English and Scottish Parliaments in 1707, led to the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain for the first time and so the details of  this  United Kingdom were very topical and the details of the parliamentary representation are enumerated in the text box on the right ending with the total of number of Members ‘which represent the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament are now 558’.
R.W.Shirley, Printed Maps of the British Isles, 1650 - 1750, Moll 7. state 3.

Dutchman, Herman Moll was a bookseller, geographer and engraver. Around 1678 he moved to London where for a while he continued as an engraver. Later, he started his own business as a map publisher and by the turn of the century had become the most prominent map publisher in the country. In 1724 he published his ‘New Description of England and Wales’ an atlas of the English and Welsh counties. The maps themselves are very attractive and clearly laid out and on either side of each map’s border are illustrated relics and antiquities associated with the county.His work had a high reputation and was much copied by other publishers. Moll also had a gift for making interesting friends and these included Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift (he provided maps for Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver’s Travels), explorer/buccaneers William Dampier and Woodes Rogers and the scientist Robert Hooke.