A124 - A Plan of the Sea Coast from Little Rocks near Hampton

Lieuts. James Grant, Thomas Wheeler & Charles Blaskowitz

h38" x w28.5"

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The survey was made by two of Samuel Holland's finest deputies; James Grant and Thomas Wheeler. It was drawn by a third, Charles Blaskowitz. All of whom were based in Portsmouth NH between 1770 and 1774.

 

This particular survey was probably completed around the end of 1773. It was almost certainly amongst the material Samuel Holland brought back to London in December 1775 as part of an agreement between the Lords of the Board of Trade and the British Admiralty and was undoubtedly used by J.F.W. Des Barres as the basis for the chart he subsequently engraved in 1776 for inclusion in the Atlantic Neptune collection. In Des Barres' version, the coastline extends south from Norman's Woe down to Marblehead. At the extreme north end of the coastline Des Barres ignores 'Little (River) Rocks' and only mentions 'Great Boars Head'. There is no title on the Des Barres' chart but it is generally listed as the 'Coast of New Hampshire and Massachusetts from Great Boars Head to Marblehead Harbor'.

 

Perhaps the most notable feature of this survey, apart from it's beautiful draftsmanship are the references to the long-standing border dispute between Massachusetts and New Hampshire just above Salisbury'. Although the dispute was resolved in favor of New Hampshire in 1741 (some 32 years previous), by way of Royal decree, the survey team were at pains to include the 'former jurisdiction line between the two provinces'. 

 

Details on the survey include; meeting houses, roads, houses/buildings marked in red, inlets, marsh/wetlands, rivers, tributaries, relief shown by colored hatching, town and village names, bridges, wharfs, sandbanks, harbors, sunken rocks, shoals dry at low water. It was normal practice for this survey team to note the location of the homes of 'significant' Loyalist officers and local dignitaries on their surveys but on this work the team only indicate one: That of 'Col Low's' at Gloucester. The Low in question would appear to be John Low (also known as John Jr) who was a Lt Colonel in the Sixth Essex Regiment of Massachusetts militia.

 

On a point of style Blaskowitz breaks the natural edge or border of the Survey in the top left corner as he follows the (now, South Hampton) road out toward the edge of the paper. This is a stylistic trait also used by Des Barres on several of his engraved charts published for the Atlantic Neptune.

 

On a point of accuracy the survey team provide a fix of Latitude observed at 'Squam Harbor with Birds' (Cape Ann) of 42°32'2". Modern day satellites offer a fix of 42°65'23". On the top left it is labelled as 'No.3'. Heritage Charts A110 - 'A Plan of Piscataqua Harbor..the town of Portsmouth..' is labelled as No.2 and Heritage Charts A124 'Ogunkett River to Cape Elizabeth is labelled No.1. They are clearly a sequence.

 

It is a little known fact that Charles Blaskowitz, Thomas Wheeler and James Grant were all members of the Masonic tradition. Indeed Blaskowitz alone can be traced as a lodge member in Nova Scotia, New Hampshire, Boston and New York and likely attended lodge meetings wherever he traveled in the course of his work.

 

Masonic and Craft lodges of the day would utilise both private houses and town meeting houses to gather. It may be no coincidence that all surveys associated with Blaskowitz, Grant and Wheeler recorded their locations. Lodges and meeting houses were also, likely 'hot-spots' for local information and intelligence about politics.

A Plan of the Sea Coast from Little Rocks near Hampton