Title: To the merchants of London Trading to Virginia and Maryland, This Mapp of the Bay of Chesapeack, with the Rivers Potomack, Potapsco North East, and part of Chester, Is humbly Dedicated & Presented, by Walter Hoxton 1735.

Publisher: [London, Walter Hoxton].

Seller: London, W. Betts and E. Baldwin.

Dimensions: Image 94 x 104 cm. Engraving.

Inset: Herring Bay.

Scale: Bar scale indicates 1 mile. 

Dimensions: 29 x 52 cm.
 

Mapp of the Bay of Chesapeack, 1735

From the early 17th century forward, the Chesapeake Bay was the subject of many maps. Middleton gives a total of 247 produced between 1590 and 1776 (Middleton, p. 72). The map by Walter Hoxton, however, seems to have been the first one intended for a strictly navigational use. Hoxton was a sea captain, who made many voyages from England to the Chesapeake Bay for the firm of John and Samuel Hyde & Co. Navigation in and around the Chesapeake Bay was difficult because of a multitude of shoals. Once a ship had reached the 37th parallel and entered the Bay, a captain could further estimate his position and plot his course by taking soundings and samples from the sea bottom.

Hoxton's chart summarizes his extensive experience in navigating. It includes soundings, information about the substance of the sea bottom, and sailing directions for entering the James and Patapsco rivers. It also contains a table that relates soundings off the Virginia Capes with distances from the land. An interesting feature is the extensive description of the Gulf Stream and the "Attempt towards ascertaining its limits, course and strength." The inset of Herring Bay was probably included because of Hoxton's business connections with members of the Chew family who lived along the Bay.

Hoxton's chart influenced several later maps of the Chesapeake Bay. 

References:
W. Cumming, 1982, p. 295, fig. 11; E. Mathews, 1898, pp. 386-388; A. Middleton, 1953, pp. 73-75; The World Encompassed, 1952, no. 245.

Return Home
 

Back

Continue