M. J. Armstrong in Norfolk

ON 30 november 1776, the Norwich Mercury announced that it was 'informed by a gentleman from London that Captain Armstrong and Son have offer'd Proposals for . . . a new map of the county of Norfolk,' with the encouragement of the nobility of the county, the Bishop of Norwich, and the county members of Parliament. Richard Gough (1780) states that the proposals had been published on November i. Captain Andrew Armstrong and his son, Mostyn John, had published large-scale maps of Scotland and northern England since 1768, and Mostyn John published a small quarto atlas of Scottish counties in 1777. They apparently moved south about 1775-6, but the reason is not known; perhaps they planned a series of large-scale maps of southern England, similar to those ofthe North. Certainly, in Norfolk, a county whose prosperity was increasing rapidly in the late eighteenth century, they might expect to find a ready market for the first large-scale map of the county. Detailed proposals for the Norfolk Map were published in the Norwich Mercury on several occasions in May, June and July 1777, together with those for a map of Lin? colnshire ; in the first advertisement, both are described as by Captain Armstrong and Son, but the later ones, for Norfolk only, contain no mention of the father, suggesting that the partnership had broken up, and M. J. Armstrong worked alone in Norfolk. His 'New and Correct Map of Norfolk' was to be 'taken from an Actual Survey and laid down on a Scale of one Inch to a Mile . . . elegantly engraved and printed on eight Sheets of Imperial Paper. Price to Subscribers Two Guineas each Copy: one Guinea to be paid on Subscribing, and the Remainder on Delivery of the Map.' The survey had been started in May and this part of the work was to be completed in Au? gust of the following year, 1778, engravings prepared in London during the autumn, and the completed map published in December 1778. Armstrong appealed for help in ascertaining precise boundaries of the Hundreds and correct spellings of place-names, and requested the loan of estate plans. He estimated that the cost of publication would be at least ?450, and intimated that the subscription list, then standing at fifty, would be closed when it had reached three hundred, and the price then raised to ?2 10s. Throughout the summer of 1777, Armstrong reported on his progress, and in No? vember said that he had completed surveying for the two western sheets, and was preparing drawings for the engraver. Proof copies (of only one sheet) were available for inspection in the following April at 'most of the booksellers in the county, and at the Coffee Houses in Norwich and Lynn.' This sheet covered 'the coast and county from Hunstanton lighthouse to Lynn Regis, Wisbech, Pentney Abbey, &c.' There were 220 subscribers by then, but already publication of the map by December 1778 seemed rather unlikely. In October 1777 another advertisement had appeared in the Norwich Mercury asking for information towards a new History of Norfolk. It was to be published in parts, cor? recting, abridging and enlarging Blomefield's uncompleted History of Norfolk (173652), and supplying illustrations where that work had none. The first part was pub? lished in May 1778, and it was announced that 'the Topographical Descriptions will be

Archaeology · Geography · Historical Studies of British Isles · History

• The re‐mapping of England, 1750–1800

  J B Harley•Imago Mundi•1965

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