Map/Chart > Maine & New England

A Plan of the Bay and Harbour of Boston showing British and 'Rebel' positions

This detailed and beautiful map of Boston and its surrounds is specifically concerned with land features and the positions of British and American forces, leading up to and including the siege of Boston during the Revolutionary War.

Description

The inscription on the chart reads ‘Surveyed agreeably to the Orders and Instructions of the Right Honorable the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations to Samuel Holland Esqr, His Majesty's Surveyor General of Lands for the North District of North America by Messrs Wheeler and Grant (Drawn by Jas. Grant 1775)’.  The map contains a very feint pencil note under the name Grant which notes that the map was drawn in 1775 and is signed in the bottom right by Grant (although much of the signature is now lost to wear and tear).

On this unique and previously unpublished map are shown the works constructed by His Majesty's troops and works thrown up by the 'Rebels'. It depicts the British troop positions in red and the positions of the American forces in yellow.  The subject content of the map dates between George Washington taking command of the American Army in July 1775 and before the American occupation of Dorchester Heights which finally forced an end to the conflict in March 1776.