ONLY ONE KNOWN EXAMPLE RECORDED. After extensive research we have been unable to locate any other example of this map. It was advertised in the ‘London Gazette’ for 6-10 December 1688 where it was stated that it ‘fitted for Travellers to carry in a Pocket Book without damage; Price 6d. coloured 8d. on Sarcenet 2s 6d.’ Sarcenet interestingly is a fine soft silk. The one recorded example is found with four other maps bound into ‘The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars’ by the Earl of Clarendon, 1702-04, in the Paul Mellon Library at Yale University (Folio A D 87).

Herman Moll (1654?-1732) arrived in England from Holland by 1678 and rose to become one of the most successful cartographers of his era. His engraving style is unique and attractive. Thomas Terry (fl.1686-89) is not well known to us; he is not even listed in Tooley’s ‘Dictionary of Mapmakers’. The BBTI identifies him as trading at the Red Lion without Newgate, as a map, print and bookseller. The following year Moll and Terry would sell a similar map of Ireland described as a pocket map and available on silk. That map is not even listed in Bonar-Law’s carto-bibliography of maps of Ireland. Two further maps are noted by Terry ‘A new Mapp of the Kingdom of Hungary’ and ‘Greece with part of Anatolia’.

The apparent purpose for its publication is no doubt the arrival of William of Orange in November 1688 to claim the English throne. It was brought about by the fact that Charles II had no legitimate heirs and this meant the crown passed to his brother James, the Duke of York. Unfortunately, it had become public knowledge that he had converted to Catholicism in the 1670s. James II came to the throne in 1685 and initially he was reassuring. Gradually however, his favour to Catholics surfaced. The birth of a male heir in the summer of 1688 brought about more concern and approaches to James’ protestant daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange.

William had his own agenda which involved his war with Louis XIV’s France. Although William arrived with military force in England it was in fact a peaceful conflict, at least in England. His overwhelming force consisted of 43 men-of-war and over 400 other sea going vessels. A force four times that of the Spanish Armada. William landed at Torbay 5 November 1688 aided by the wind which had kept James’ fleet from intercepting. James had built a formidable force of 25,000 men which were encamped at Hounslow Heath clearly identified on the edge of the map by ‘Hounslow 10 Miles From London’. As they advanced to the west to meet William’s advance, support within his own forces withered away to such a degree that James retreated to London. At the time of publication William had advanced to Salisbury.

With this background in mind Herman Moll and Thomas Terry published this map of the west of England. Probably the best clue as to the fact that the map was designed for this development in mind is the fact that London is omitted entirely. The map illustrates an extensive network of ‘Great & Small Roads’. Although Moll was engraving maps from as early as 1678 for Moses Pitt, 1688 is the year of his own first publications, all of them are rare. Bennett describes the map as ‘the first comprehensive map showing the roads of the South West’. Provenance: private English collection since c.1985. Bennett (2007) ‘Road-Books’ p. 30; Bennett (2007) ‘Roads Devon & Cornwall’ p. 71, both Bennett books incorrectly dating it to 1710; Tyacke (1978) no. 157 & p.123.