A remarkable early manuscript map of North Carolina. Edward Moseley, the Surveyor General of North Carolina, published one of the rarest and most important maps of North Carolina, ‘A New and Correct Map of the Province of North Carolina By Edward Moseley, late Surveyor General of the said Province 1733’. Cumming stated that ‘Moseley’s map is one of the most important type maps in the history of North Carolina cartography’. Although dated 1733 it is believed to have been published a little later. Certainly by 1737 when the ‘Virginia Gazette’ for 9 September 1737 advertised ‘a very large Map, (being Five Feet long, and Four Feet broad, on Two Sheets of Elephant Paper) it’s not only Useful, but Ornamental, for Gentlemen’s Halls, Parlours, or Stair-cases’. Only three examples survive, one at Eton College in England, one at the National Archives in Kew, England, and one at East Carolina University. It would not be superseded until that by John Collet in 1770.

His mammoth map was one of the first to both accurately map the coastal regions and also identify settlements in the interior. John Cowley was the engraver of Moseley’s mammoth map and the author of this manuscript map. He would later become geographer to the King.

It appears to be a reduced version from it, with identical place names and locations of rivers, inlets, etc. There is, however, a notable cartographic difference between the two. The most historically significant difference between the two maps is the addition of the boundary line between the two colonies of North Carolina and South Carolina.

A study of the two maps generated the following list of differences:

1. Size. The Printed Moseley Map is 57.125 inches by 45.25 inches (2,585 square inches) and the Manuscript Moseley Map is 27.75 inches by 22.25 inches (617 square inches). The Printed Moseley Map is more than four times as large as the Manuscript Moseley map. The larger printed map would have been used for official purposes.
2. Cartouche. The Printed Moseley Map has two cartouches, one dedicates the map to the new governor of North Carolina, Gabriel Johnston, and the second is simply a title. The Manuscript Moseley Map has one title cartouche. Both maps are titled “A New and Correct Map of the Province of North Carolina”.
3. Colour. The Printed Moseley Map has no colour as was common for official maps. The Manuscript Moseley Map has multi-coloured coast lines, meadows, mountains, borders and a compass rose.
4. Latitude lines shown on the Manuscript Moseley Map are shown on the face of the map but are just in the border on the Printed Moseley Map. Vertical lines are only shown on the face of the Manuscript Moseley Map but are not longitude lines. This may be to allow for determining square miles.
5. Boundary lines. The boundary between North and South Carolina is shown for the first time on any map on the Manuscript Moseley Map after agreement is made between the two colonies. Precinct (county) boundaries are added and coloured on the Manuscript Moseley Map.
6. A note is added to the Manuscript Moseley Map in the lower left corner below the scale “N.B. The Parallel Squares are 30 miles or ½ a degree in each side which in the whole contain 900 square miles p Sq.” Antique maps seldom, if ever, deal with square miles. This also helps explain why the vertical lines are on the Manuscript Moseley Map.
7. A curious narrative is added at the head of the Peedee River on the Manuscript Moseley Map. “This is a Representation of an Improvement made at the conflux of two Rivers, which Demonstrates the advantages of Such a Situation, both for Profit, Pleasure and Security”. McCulloh and Associates were seeking land at the conflux (head) of the Peedee, Neus and Cape Fear rivers. Colonial Records frequently refer to McCulloh and Associates request for 1.2 million acres of land to be at the head of the Peedee River, not mentioning the heads of the other two rivers also sought.
8. Numerous plantation owner names are noted on the Printed Moseley Map but not on Manuscript Moseley Map, except for “Stag Park”, Governor Burrington’s plantation on the Northeast Branch of the Cape Fear River. “Stag Park” was also identified on earlier maps of the area before Burrington’s time.
9. Decorative touches. The Manuscript Moseley Map has substantial decoration in the form of mountains, valleys, forest, gardens and meadows.
10. Virginia North Carolina Boundary line. At the Nottoway River the two maps diverge as to whether the line is to jog north or south.
11. Indian tribes. Most references to “Ind. T.” (Indian Tribe) are deleted on the Manuscript Moseley Map.
12. The far western town of Pedees has more houses in the Manuscript Moseley Map.
13. The Manuscript Moseley Map has two unnamed branching rivers added after completion of the map. One river is added to the Great Peedee and one to the Little Peedee River. This may have been added later in 1737 once the actual boundary survey was received in London showing these additional rivers.
14. “Neus or New Bern River” has been added to the Manuscript Moseley Map to what is also identified as “Conneghta Creek” on both maps. The Neus River is actually further west but is not labelled on the Printed Moseley Map. The confusion maybe from the 1736 land survey of McCulloh and Dobbs’ first land grants which incorrectly identifies the proper Neus River as the Acconechy River. It may also come from the Burrington/Jenner “draught” in which the Conneghta Creek is labelled as the “North Branch of Neus River”.
15. Northwest Branch of the Cape Fear River is labeled in the Manuscript Moseley Map not on the other map.
16. Note regarding the location of Cape Henry (in Virginia) is added to North East portion of Manuscript Moseley Map.
17. Western villages and towns have more structures showing on the Manuscript Moseley Map.
18. “Town” eliminated from title of Bath, Brunswick and Beufort on Manuscript Moseley Map.
19. “Pamtico River” is added to the upper reaches of the river on the Manuscript Moseley Map.

The governors of North and South Carolina, in 1735, each appointed commissioners to determine the boundary. Governor Burrington appointed five members of his Majesty’s Council in North Carolina, including Col. Edward Moseley, as commissioners. Finally, on the 23rd of April, 1735 the commissioners met and agreed on where the boundary line should be. The Board of Trade wrote as late at 11 November 1736 to Governor Johnston of North Carolina requesting again a full description of the agreed upon boundary. The details finally arrive in London sometime later in 1736 or early 1737. It appears that the boundary was drawn on this manuscript map to the letter. It does however stop at the Peedee River as it becomes difficult to follow from there.

However, research appears to show that the land speculator Henry McCulloh and Arthur Dobbs, at one time Governor of North Carolina, commissioned John Cowley to produce this manuscript map derived from the Moseley and present it along with their petition for land to the Board of Trade. Provenance: An unidentified antique collector, by descent to his granddaughter in Idaho; Swann Galleries 14 June 2007 lot 50. Refer Cumming (1998) 218; McNamara (2012) ‘A New and Correct Map of the Province of North Carolina: The Discovery of a 1737 North Carolina Manuscript Map’, in ‘Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts’ (available at https://www.mesdajournal.org/2012/correct-map-province-north-carolina/); Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).