Lewis Evans | Two works printed by Franklin to accompany Evans's seminal map of the North American Colonies

Lewis Evans

Geographical, Historical, Political, Philosophical and Mechanical Essays. The First, Containing an Analysis of a General Map of the British Colonies in America [map not present]. Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin, and D. Hall, 1755 [With:] Geographical, Historical, Political, Philosophical and Mechanical Essays. Number II. Containing a Letter. Philadelphia: Printed [by B. Franklin and D. Hall] for the Author, 1756

2 volumes, folio (255 x 196 mm). A few contemporary notes regarding the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick in the margins in Part I, one-page ad for Evans's Map and the "Analysis" pamphlet at rear of Part II; infrequent pale spots, a few leaves very faintly toned, altogether a pair of bright examples. Uniform later half calf, marbled paper boards, gilt decorated spines with two red morocco labels; light rubbing, a few small spots of wear at corners and spine ends. Housed together in a custom green morocco backed slipcase with chemises.

Two works by Lewis Evans, the second, revised edition of part I and the first edition of part II, printed to accompany his seminal A General Map of the Middle British Colonies in America. Evans's map, not offered here, is among the most important ever produced of the North American colonies, and was "the best cartographical delineation of the colonies available at its time" (Howes).

The first pamphlet, printed by Franklin in 1755, was sold both with the map and separately. With unprecedented transparency, Evans explains that, "as different parts of the map are done with different proportion of exactness, justice to the public, requires my distinguishing the degree of credit every part deserves." For example, he tells us what exactly he surveyed himself and how he went about it. He credits Fry and Jefferson for Virginia and Walter Hoxton for the Chesapeake Bay. Evans also acknowledges surveys of Eastern Pennsylvania by Edward Scull, a journal describing Ohio by William Franklin, and "a very intelligent Indian called The Eagle, who had a good notion of distances, bearings and delineating" (p. 10). He goes on to discuss various American Indian tribes, the major American waterways, and ends with a plea for the King to establish a colony in the Ohio Valley, "the region that was at the center of the friction between England and France" (Pritchard and Taliaferro, p. 172).

The second part, which is ascribed to Franklin's press by Miller, includes a detailed response to an anonymous attack that was published in the 5 January 1756 issue of the New-York Mercury. That letter, reprinted in full as a preface, accused Evans of endorsing French claims to the area north of Lake Ontario. The mapmaker's response includes new information about those French claims, and a discussion of the best ways to counter them. According to Pritchard and Taliaferro, "while Evans conceded that that the French had rights to certain territory in America, he was convinced that they had severely encroached upon England's holdings … effectively confining the English to their existing coastal settlements" (Ibid).

The first part is a second revised edition, first issue, of the text. It is "virtually a page-for-page resetting of the first edition with sub-titles added" (Miller).

While the first work is offered occasionally in various editions, issues, and with and without the map, the second part is justifiably scarce — just seven copies have been sold at auction since the Streeter sale in 1967, per Rare Book Hub.

REFERENCES

Miller 606, 633; ESTC W14361, W24172; Evans 7419, 7652; cf. Pritchard and Taliaferro, Degrees of Latitude 34 (Evans's map)