An UNRECORDED sea chart of Boston by George Louis Le Rouge published during the French and Indian War. It is not listed in any of the standard references on the mapping of Boston. George Louis Le Rouge it appears was born in Hannover 28 August 1704 where the parents who are recorded as being French went by the name of Noel and Maria Anna Rouger. Upon their return to France George Louis Le Rouge became a military engineer for the French and took up cartography from about 1740 in the Rud des Grands Augustins, Paris. He was made Geographe du Roy by Louis XV and died in 1778. Some of the earliest North American maps by Le Rouge date from the 1740s. Le Rouge is known for just the one plan of Boston in the being the ‘Plan de Boston avec les Sondes et les Directions pour la Navigation’ published 1778 during the American Revolution and included in examples of the ‘Pilote Americain Septentrional’. A notable early American related work is the ‘Recueil des Plans de L’Amerique Septentrionale’ published 1755 which did not include any map of Boston.

The title of this map identifies the source as M. le Chevalier de la Rigaudiere. He was the Captain of the vessel ‘Licorne’ which carried Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, the Aide-de-camp to Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm. The latter was put in charge of the French army in North America at the outbreak of the French and Indian War. It is recorded that they left Brest in France on 3 April 1756. Bougainvilles correspondence refers to de la Rigaudiere extensively. The vessel arrived in Quebec in May. It is clear from the reference that de la Rigaudiere produced his own charts; one of Louisbourg was also engraved by Le Rouge. Getting access to Boston harbour however is an entirely different matter and for that he relied upon English sources. It is derived from the inset of John Thornton’s ‘A Large Draught of New England New York and Long Island first published in the ‘English Pilot Fourth Book’ in 1706 and surviving in just one known example of the first state.

The chart extends from Hingham in the south to Nahant Bay in the north and extends inland to include Charles Town and Boston. Profiles of the towns of Charles Town, Boston, Dorchester, Milton, Bantrey, Meneticu and Hingam are also depicted. The soundings are derived from the Thornton chart and a ship is displayed at anchor off Boston. The islands in the harbour and dangerous shoals are clearly marked along with a clear channel for shipping. Only four other examples of this separately issued chart could be traced. One is in the Boston Public Library, another in Yale and two in private American ownership. Oehme, R. ‘A French World Atlas of the 18th Century: The Atlas General of G. L. Le Rouge’, in Imago Mundi 25 pp. 55-64.