12. Map of the River Thames for Josh Mawman
12. Title: A Map of the Port of London and
the River Thames from London Bridge to Sheerness.
(above top border) with Engraved for the
Treatise on the Commerce and Police of
the River Thames. Published May 1800.
(below title).
Date: 1800.
Size: 213 x 560 mm.
Imprint(s): Published by Josh Mawman, successor to Mr Dilly in
the Poultry, London.
Signature(s): Engraved by John Cooke. 50 Howland St.:
Location(s): LUL, KB, DEI[1].
Date: 1800.
Size: 213 x 560 mm.
Comments: Engraved for the Treatise
on the Commerce and Police of the River Thames by Patrick Colquhoun, LL.D.
published May, 1800. Copies can be found at almost all major British national
and university libraries and at least 3 copies are available on-line.[2]
The
London merchants trading with the West Indies at the time were losing a great
deal of revenue to theft and corruption and the government losing important
customs duties. Patrick Colquhoun (1745-1820), the metropolitan police magistrate,
at that time had already published his Treatise
on the Police of the Metropolis in 1795, and was asked to study the problem
largely by the merchants themselves. This treatise containing an historical view of the trade of the port of London: and suggesting
means for preventing the depredations thereon, by a legislative system of River
Police suggested a number of solutions the main one being the establishment
of a river police. The benefits which Colquhoun's exertions brought to the West
India planters led the colonies of St. Vincent, Nevis, Dominica, and the Virgin
Islands to appoint him their agent in England. [DNB]
[1] Although DEI has a copy, the map has been trimmed close to border and the Cooke signature lost. Senate House Special Collections [G.L.] copy is 18053 1800. Facsimile reprints by Patterson Smith of New Jersey (1969) and by ECCO Print Editions (2017). The National Library of the Netherlands copy is freely available to read or as pdf on Google Books (no map).
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