Gascoigne, John and William Faden | An important early Revolutionary War map of the Port Royal Sound in South Carolina

Gascoigne, John and William Faden

A Plan of Port Royal in South Carolina. Survey'd by Capn. John Gascoigne. London: Jefferys & Faden, [1776]

Copper-engraved sea chart on a full untrimmed sheet (832 x 656 mm). Marginal restoration, edges slightly chipped and soiled, old horizontal fold, small old closed tear to "the" in subheading, a few small stains but overall bright.

First state of the most important map of South Carolina's Port Royal Sound and Hilton Head made early in the Revolutionary War.

The map, depicting what is today Beaufort County, includes the town of Beaufort and various islands including Port Royal, Parris's, Trench's (Hilton Head), Lady's, and St. Helena. It also individually labels several plantations in the region. The detail was the result of surveys conducted by Captain John Gascoigne and his brother James. A later iteration of their manuscript map eventually found its way to the London workshop of William Faden, one of Britain's leading cartographers, who printed the present map in 1776, in the early days of the Revolutionary War. The Port Royal Sound was of great strategic importance during the war; while it began as a territory of the American Patriots, it was highly coveted by the British and faced naval attacks in 1779. However, the British were ultimately forced to surrender, and the region remained in the possession of the American forces until the end of the war.

REFERENCES

cf. Cumming, British Maps of Colonial America, p. 47-49; Sellers & Van Ee, Maps & Charts of North America & the West Indies, 1529; Steven & Tree, "Comparative Cartography," in Tooley, The Mapping of America, 71(a); The Southeast in Early Maps, 204