Tourist Maps of Devon

 John Cary John Cary (b.1755 - d.1835) was one of the finest English cartographers. Besides county maps his work covered world atlases, road maps, sea charts, town and canal plans. He became Surveyor of Roads to the General Post Office, commissioned to survey the roads of England in 1794. John Cary came originally from Wiltshire, the son of a maltster. He was born in February 1755, the second son of George and Mary Cary. He had three brothers, Francis (1756-1836) also an engraver, William (1759-1825) a map publisher and globe maker with whom he collaborated, and George (d.1830) who had premises as a haberdasher in the Strand, London (1820). His two sons, George the younger (d.1859) and John, joined the firm in 1820. The business passed to G.F.Cruchley c.1844, and later to Gall & Inglis. John Cary’s first county atlas, New and Correct Atlas, appeared in parts from 1787 to 1789. Originally the plan was to publish one part a month, each to include 4 counties, and Devon appeared in i

John Cary -   John Heydon   The first local publisher to issue a map derived from Cary's Improved Map was John Heydon   in his Map of the Environs of Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse or Pedestrian’s Companion . The map shows almost 90% of sheet 2 of Cary’s map. This version would seem to pre-date both the Seeley map of Torquay and the A H Swiss   derivatives by a number of years from evidence of the railway network but the area covered is, in fact, very similar to that included in the Swiss map, A H Swiss' No. I Hunting Map. The Plymouth District. John Heydon published two further maps of Plymouth for tourists ( c.f. ) and one of the first county maps of Devonshire based on the Improved Map plates was also published by Heydon (see B&B 150 ). The county map [1] first appeared circa 1872 and also carried a note about forts and batteries (see below).     Size: 460 x 575 mm.                                          Scale of English Miles (8 = 105 mm).   JOHN HEYDON`S MA

  John Cary -   Arthur Westley Arthur Westley  began business in the late 1870s taking over from Edward Cockrem (see Cockrem 5). He seems to have commissioned only one map (but it may also have been taken over from Cockrem) but was offering a range of different maps of Torquay and the neighbourhood between 1880 and 1885. One of the maps he offered was taken from  the Cary plates of the Improved Map . His business was, in turn, taken over by Leonard Seeley.   L Seeley   was a Torquay bookseller and library proprietor. In circa 1885 he was issuing a map based on work by Cary’s Improved map only differing from Westley’s in small details and a slight “shift to the east”. Also at about this time he was selling an updated version of a map produced by W Elliott   which was now some 50 years old ( c.f. ). Exactly which map replaced which, or whether Seeley was selling both together cannot be clarified. However, the selection of other items being sold (on back cover) seems to indicate that th

  John Cary -  The IMPROVED MAP of ENGLAND and WALES Cary's Improved Map of England and Wales with a considerable part of Scotland consisted of a total of 65 maps and was first published in parts by John Cary, in London between 1820 and 1830. Cary sold the sheets as a boxed set of folding maps and as an atlas in 1832. After Cruchley obtained the maps he continued to sell each sheet separately in covers as Cruchley's Reduced Ordnance Map of England and Wales , and in a variety of different covers, each section being approximately 500 by 630 mm. Cruchley even went to the lengths of cutting six maps to size to compile a map of Devon from the five sheets containing Devon plus the Somerset sheet, No. 17 (see B&B 138A ). Similarly, George Richmond took parts of these sheets to produce his Exeter map in c.1876. The sheets were used again by Seeley c.1890, by A H Swiss for his fox-hunting maps in c.1890 and parts appeared in the Homeland Handbooks at the end of the century. The lis

  John Cary -   A H Swiss   Gall & Inglis   were successful publishers who had bought part of the stock of George Frederick Cruchley   when it came up for auction in 1877 . Some of the plates sold included those of John Cary that Cruchley had acquired over thirty years previously. These were again revised and issued in cooperation with local companies such as A H Swiss   of Devonport. These were fox‑hunting maps of Devon produced c. 1890 , and are transfers from the plates of the Improved Map of England of Wales with added railways and hunt information. Three maps by Swiss covering Devon are known. Two maps covering basically north Devon and south Devon on two sheets are described in The Victorian Maps of Devon (entry B&B 166 ). It was thought that there was a map on one sheet; Swiss & Co.s No. 1 Map . It would appear that this was an error. The No. 1 map only covers parts of sheets 2 and 9 of Cary's Improved Map. The sea area south of Plymouth has been cut off

  John Cary -   Thomas Doidge   The company of Thomas Doidge was listed in a trade directory of 1879 as proprietors of a photographic studio, fancy goods dealers, booksellers, binders, stationers, &c at Union Street, Plymouth. O ne or two photographs survive and one has an advert on the reverse announcing that oil or watercolour copis of the portrait can be had at life size. [1]                                                               Little of Doidge’s output is held at the major libraries   One ma p of  Devon  is known by Doidge and Co.   Apart from this map, the BL only has a copy of A Ramble around Mount Edgcumbe  written by W H K Wright  published by the company.  Doidge's Western Counties Annual  ‑ A miscellany of useful, instructive, entertaining local and general information ‑ was issued annually from c. 1877 at which time they were operating from premises at 169‑170 Union St . This was produced in two editions with a special printing for the Army and Navy editio