An Accurate Map of North and South Carolina with their Indian Frontiers…

Artist/Maker
Mouzon, Henry __Cartographer ||Delarochette, Louis __Cartographer ||Sparrow, Samuel Turner __Engraver ||Sayer, Robert __Publisher ||Bennett, John __Publisher
Place Made
London Great Britain
Date Made
1775
Medium
ink on paper
Dimensions
HOA: 40″; WOA: 57 1/2″ (sight)
Accession Number
3024.3
Description
Henry Mouzon’s 1775 map presented the most accurate geography of the Carolina Colonies on the eve of the American Revolution. Copies used during the Revolution by General George Washington, the Compte de Rochambeau, and General Henry Clinton, all survive in public collections.

The “Mouzon” map was compiled from multiple sources. The vast majority of the information within the Carolinas was copied from the 1770 map, A Compleat Map of North Carolina, by John Collet and William Churton, and from James Cook’s 1773 A Map of the Province of South Carolina. Information (some of it inaccurate) was also lifted from earlier 18th century maps, including the 1753 Fry-Jefferson map of Virginia, and the 1738 chart of North Carolina by James Wimble. The depiction of the Cherokee territory may have been based on information from William Gerard De Brahm and/or John Stuart, though the specific map source has not been identified. The “Mouzon” map would remain the type map for North Carolina and South Carolina into the early 19th century.

CARTOGRAPHER: The map was compiled and drawn by Louis Delarochette, a cartographer working for the Sayer & Bennett publishing firm. Although Delarochette (or the publisher) gave primary credit in the map title to Henry Mouzon, Jr., Mouzon supplied very little (if any) of the cartographic information. As stated above, the map was compiled almost entirely from previously published sources. There were two men named Henry Mouzon, Jr., first cousins, living in South Carolina when this map was made. It is most likely that the Henry Mouzon (d.1777) credited for this map was the one residing in Craven County, South Carolina. He had published a map of St. Stephen’s Parish in 1774 and his probate inventory includes “Sundry Maps & 2 copper Plates.” Mouzon did intend to publish a map of South Carolina (not both Carolinas) and, in May 1774, he published an extensive description of his manuscript map. Although his manuscript map does not survive, his very detailed description bears almost no resemblance to the published “Mouzon map.”

RELATED OBJECTS: William Gerard De Brahm’s 1757 A Map of South Carolina (MESDA acc. 3024.2) and John Collet’s 1770 A Compleat Map of North Carolina (WHS P-647).

REFERENCES: Pritchard and Taliaferro, Degrees of Latitude 44
Cummings, The Southeast in Early Maps, 450
Wates, “Henry Mouzon” http://blog.ncmaps.org/index.php/mouzon/
Lester, “Mouzon’s ghost writer, or, the true author/compiler of the “Mouzon” map of the Carolinas” in The Portolan, No.96 (Fall 2016): 21-28. The Portolan is published by the Washington Map Society.

History
Issued separately a well as in Sayer and Bennett’s “American Atlas: or, A Geographical Description of the Whole Continent of America” published by Thomas Jefferys.
Credit Line
Gift of Frank L. Horton