Map of the Maritime Parts of Virginia Exhibiting the Seat of War and of Ld. Dunmore’s depredations in that Colony.
This map appeared in the April 1776 issue of The Pennsylvania Magazine, published in Philadelphia. The magazine had been founded by Robert Aitken and was edited by Thomas Paine. The map is coarse and crudely engraved by Aitken and is a close copy of the lower Chesapeake Bay Region of the Fry & Jefferson map of Virginia. However, it is a significant map; Coolie Verner says it appears to be the first separate map of Virginia to be drawn, engraved, printed, and published in America.
(NB. This map was Coolie Verner’s copy.)
We have heard of famous Virginians such as Patrick Henry, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson who helped convert a British colony into a republic. However, we may not have heard of Lord John Murray Dunmore who inadvertently did his share as British governor of the Virginia Colony. He obviously lacked the necessary diplomatic skills for the job. His misguided actions against the Virginians in 1772 though early 1776 further inflamed the passions of the Virginians as they first sought fairness from their British leaders, then sought freedom from them.
Lord Dunmore was appointed governor of Colonial Virginia in July 1771, and on his arrival at Williamsburg in 1772 dissolved the Virginia Assembly. Dunmore finally convened the Assembly in March 1773, hoping to find a way to deal with fiscal issues to support his war against the trans-Appalachian Indians, but postponed the meeting when the Burgesses wanted to address their grievances. When Dunmore reconvened the Assembly in 1774, the Burgesses passed a resolution declaring June 1, 1774 (the date of the closing of the port of Boston) a day of fasting and prayer in Virginia. In response, Dunmore dissolved the Assembly. When Dunmore removed all the gunpowder from the magazine in the colonial capital at Williamsburg in April, 1775 he started the ball rolling that soon became a full rebellion led by Patrick Henry. Lord Dunmore issued a proclamation against “a certain Patrick Henry” and his “deluded followers,” but upon the receipt of the news from Lexington; i.e., the “shot heard ’round the world”, he fled to Fort Johnston, North Carolina.
In 1776, when the British army arrived in New York, Lord Dunmore was joined by a few loyalists and began his “depredations”. He carried on a petty warfare, plundering the property of Virginians on the James and York rivers and carrying off their slaves. Dunmore promised freedom to the slaves, and hundreds took advantage of that offer, further angering the Virginians.
Dunmore burned Norfolk, then the most populous and flourishing town of Virginia. He took refuge on board his fleet and continued his predatory warfare, but, after several losses, departed the area, ultimately returning to England. Dunmore was the last royal governor of Virginia; the fires he fueled helped end British rule of Colonial America. It appears he miscalculated the resolve of the Virginians, but he was rewarded with an appointment as governor of the Bahamas in 1787.
I mentioned Dr. Coolie Verner (1917-1979) in my opening paragraph. He was a world-renowned professor of adult education, culminating his career at the University of British Columbia. But his passion and vocation was the history of cartography and carto-bibliography. He acquired a large collection of maps to support his study of the cartographic development of northern North America, and donated them to the University. My assertion that the map pictured (which I once owned) was his personal copy is that it has flaws identical to the one pictured in one of his publications (which I no longer have). Dr. Verner’s career in adult education began at the University of Virginia (1947-50) where he taught adult education classes and was a part of that University’s Extension Division. He joined the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia in 1961, where he established the first graduate program in adult education in Canada.
Tales from the Rare Map Cabinet by Luke A Vavra
Stock Number WM005V
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