Manhattan/ American Revolution.  MONTRESOR, John/ DURY, Andrew (publisher)  [London, 1775]  A Plan of the City of New-York & its Environs to Greenwich... Survey'd in the Winter, 1775 Sold by A. Dury, Dukes Court St. Martins Lane. 25 ¼ x 20 ½ inches. Fine original color possibly with slight re-touching; stain in upper right margin, which has been slight extended, else excellent.                                                                            

An exceptionally attractive example of one of the most beautiful and historically important, early plans of New York City, showing the city in the years leading up to the Revolution.  One of the finest we have seen.  It was the first large-scale map to depict Manhattan as far north as Greenwich Village and the first to convey a sense of the island’s rolling, highly varied topography prior to later development. This area is here revealed as a patchwork of cultivated fields separated by rolling hills and country lanes along with large estates with fine ornamental gardens.  These were the country homes of the city’s commercial elite, and their owners are named on the plan. Also depicted are a ten-acre lake called The Fresh Water or Collect Pond as well as numerous streams, rivers, marshes and forest.  Greenwich Village can be seen as an actual village in the northernmost part of the plan, although at the time the developed part of the city barely reached as far north as today’s Canal Street.  Within the street plan is King's, later Columbia College, shown here for the first time on a map.

The plan was drafted in 1765 and 1766 by the British military engineer, Captain John Montresor, by order of General Thomas Gage, then Commandant of the British forces in North America headquartered in New York City.  At the time, violent riots were sweeping the city, as colonists protested the Stamp Act and other onerous measures of the Crown.  Since an adequate plan of the city did not exist at the time, Gage ordered Montresor to prepare one to aid in planning strategy in the event of a full-scale insurrection.

Montresor was required to carry out his surveys in clandestine fashion for fear of discovery by local citizenry.  The evidence of his haste can be seen in the fact that the street plan is clearly incomplete with only a few streets named, and their sizes are often distorted.  However, at the bottom is an important list of 33 structures—including defenses--that is keyed to the plan.  On the plan are fourteen religious establishments representing more than 10 denominations, including the “Jews Synagogue,” near Broad Street (with their “burying ground” well north at the apex of Bowery and Love Lane).  There is also a detailed nautical chart of the harbor in the upper left.  In the lower left is an account of the city containing a detailed and highly critical description of the town's fort, as scrutinized by a professional engineer's eye.  

Montresor brought this survey of New York and other maps to the London publisher, Mary Ann Rocque, widow of the mapmaker and publisher, John Rocque.  The original manuscript of the plan still hangs at Firle Place, the ancestral home of the Gage family.  The map was originally published in 1766, but it was evidently not successful, as only a few examples have survived.  The map was then re-published from the same plate in 1775 by Andrew Dury, which is the edition offered here.  It is deceptively stated on this edition that the plan was "Survey'd in the Winter, 1775," a completely false claim to make the plan appear more current and commercially appealing.  Only these two states of the English edition of the map are known; a French re-engraving appeared in 1777.

John Montresor (1736-1799) had a long, varied and remarkably productive career in the American Colonies, beginning with service during the French and Indian War and not concluding until 1778, by which time he was Chief Engineer in North America. In the mid-1760s he was based in New York City as a senior engineer reporting to General Gage, then Commander in Chief of British forces in North America.

Augustyn/Cohen, Manhattan in Maps, pp. 70-2; Nebenzahl, K. Atlas of the American Revolution, Map 11, p. 85; Tooley, R.V. Mapping of America, p. 213, #126, pl. 126; Haskell, D.C. Manhattan Maps, no. 307.d; G. D. Scull, ed., The Montresor Journals in Collections of the New-York Historical Society for the Year 1881.

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