John Cooke - Cartographic Works

The Copper-Plate Engraving, and Printing Office (1815-21)

Cooke´s Synopsis represented a considerable amount of work and new evidence reveals that it was republished, not in its original form, but as a 2 or 3 Parts Issue. As early as January 1815, an advertisement was placed in the Royal Cornwall Gazette in which W Cock, of Penryn announces the forthcoming publication early in February next of A General Synopsis of Geography to be sold by subscription in 40 quarto numbers costing one shilling each (Fig. 31). W Cock will be printing and publishing the work; it will also be published by E Nile and Son and sold by S King of Dock and J Heard, Truro; other publishers will be based in London, S A Oddy of Ivy Lane and J and J Cundee of Paternoster Row, both connected to other geographical works. Already proof impressions of the Plates were available at 5s each.

Fig. 31. Advertisement in Royal Cornwall Gazette (January 1815).

Two booklets at Yale[1] have original text sheets, bound in what appears to be a Parts Issue. The first of these is titled An historical introduction to the sciences in general, particularly geometry, astronomy and geography, from the most remote and earliest period ... also, the discovery of the several planets, by Herschel, Piazza, Olbers, and Mr. Harding (Fig. 32).

This first of the two works (assuming the same sequence as the original) is By John Cooke, Engraver and Geographer and was Published by ####### / at the Copper-Plate Engraving and Printing Office, New Road, Stonehouse, / near Plymouth, / 1816. Part of the imprint of this volume (###) has had the publisher´s name crossed out by hand but it is still possible to discern the name of E Nile.

This volume, except for the new title page, is identical to the original Synopsis edition, the pagination runs from i to lvii and has four of the original engravings. Mary Cooke´s moon has the imprint seen in A General Synopsis; the larger Solar System has the High Street, Bloomsbury address seen in that work; however, the Seasons now has imprint Engraved, Published Jan 1 [space] by J Cooke, [space] Howland Street, Fitzroy Squ^e(Fig. 45c). Except for the use of an ampersand, the page of diagrams beginning with Refraction and Reflection also has this imprint. Howland Street was Cooke´s address circa 1799-1805 and the address Fitzroy Squ^eis only seen on Mrs Cooke´s trade card. This appears to be evidence of surplus stock from the earlier publication, the Circular Atlas of 1800-01.

Fig. 32. Title page to An historical introduction to the sciences (1816).

The second part is The geometrical, astronomical and geographical definitions ... with an explanation of the astronomical and geographical terms ... Tables of the constellations, climates ... also, the method of drawing, the different geometrical figures with ease and accuracy. The second part has a similar but not identical authorship and imprint on the title page: By John Cooke, Engraver and Geographer, Late Engraver to the Admiralty but this time the imprint reads London: / Printed for the Proprietor, E Nile, Bookseller, Union-Street, New-Road, Stonehouse, / near Plymouth; and sold by all other booksellers in the / United Kingdom, / 1816. This Part contains all plates appearing in the Synopsis, from page 1 to 29, with High Street, Bloomsbury imprints.

While the original covers of these works have been lost, a small paper label, possibly cut from one issue has been saved and pasted on to the new cover in which both are placed. This label bears the title An historical introduction to the sciences in general with Price Seven Shillings.

There is now no mention of E Nile and Son, or of S King, Dock, or the well-known London companies whose participation were advertised the previous year. Cooke would be associated with Mrs Nile throughout the period 1816-1820.

This is clearly leftover stock being reissued, but approximately one third of the earlier Synopsis is lacking; this would neatly form a third part, covering pages 30 to 53 and would constitute a manual for those endeavouring to learn the skills of a mapmaker. Given three more or less equal parts at seven shillings each, the final work would cost one guinea.

Very little work is known from the Copper Plate Engraving and Printing Office, but all of it is associated with Mrs E Nile and/or John Cooke – except one. The Chart of the Harbour of Plymouth / Taken 1817 covers all of the area which surrounds Plymouth Sound and Cawsand Bay (22).

On the right is a sketch (A) of a dry dock with its (planned?) dimensions. This is explained in the Reference (Ea) as a dry dock at Tanchapel (sic); this should be Turnchapel. John Parker, also known as the 1^st Earl of Morley, was the landowner at Turnchapel, and he improved the wharves there, an important site of repairs to His Majesty´s Navy, with a wet dock (c.1798) and a dry dock in 1804. In 1812 it saw the launch of the Clarence, a 74-gun ship-of-the-line.

Although not signed, this chart is believed to be the first by John Cooke executed in Plymouth. It was printed at the Copper Plate Engraving and Printing Office which would become linked with a number of Cooke´s maps and plans from 1820. The chart is very similar to another by Cooke (31) which also lacked a bottom border. The approach using Tor House is clearly explained: Tor-House and Black spot in a centre of a White Patch on the Garrison Wall is the leading Mark through Sedley´s Channel. This inclusion of Tor House is also seen in the later chart. Except for the imprint this looks like a chart prepared for a government report.

In Cooke´s plans of Plymouth Dock (19 and 20) he had omitted most coastal features, but in this chart, we have a suggestion of coastal shading. The mud flats to the west are clearly shown, not dissimilar to those of his Falmouth chart (23).

Cooke’s plan of Stoke Damerell and the plan of Plymouth Dock had concentrated on that small area. This chart now takes in the whole of the greater Plymouth waterway. The breakwater has its two end promontories both facing inwards: started in 1812 it was just starting to take shape. More of an enigma is that where Kerr Street was shown in the plan of 1810, we now have Windmill Hill.

If this chart is by John Cooke, and the date represents the year it was finished (as opposed to being copied at a later date) then it is his earliest plan to be produced in Devon. It also included the breakwater and was one of the earliest of all plans to show it. The Breakwater does appear to have fascinated John Cooke, or he saw a commercial opportunity. In the years he spent in Plymouth he would complete three different plans of the breakwater (entries 28, 30 and 36) and publish a small booklet (jointly with J Johns of Plymouth), reprinting much of John Rennie´s initial reports to the Admiralty. The small chart included in this latter work was Published for and sold by Mrs E Nile, probably from the Copper Plate Engraving and Printing Office (27).

Whereas there is a dearth of material by Cooke from 1812 to 1815 Cooke´s output seems to be slow and steady from about 1820 after initial contact with the Copper-Plate Engraving and Printing Office. A detailed map of the Borough of Plymouth was issued in that year (25). The engraver’s signature is clearly that of John Cooke and the imprint is: Pubd April 15. 1820. by Mrs E Nile, No. 48 Union St, Stonehouse. The imprint of Mrs Nile, however, continues … Engraving & Copper-Plate Printing Office. John Cooke and Mrs Nile have some sort of business arrangement.

There is a dedication on a tablet in a vignette to the Mayor, commonalty and inhabitants from John Cooke. If John Cooke was simply the engraver, this would be strange indeed. Whether John Cooke received permission to do this, or whether it was a means to attract official consent, is not known but this is not the only map to have, or to seek, public support.

These last two maps indicate that Cooke may have been active for Mrs Nile for up to three years. The Borough plan not only has the imprint: Engraving & Copper-Plate Printing Office but the premises are marked with an asterisk on Union Street (Fig. 33, the map has even been extended into the border to include it).

In the same year the first edition of Cooke´s Plan of the Towns and Harbour of Plymouth, Stonehouse, Dock also appeared (26). The Plan has a comprehensive key and the Copper Plate Print. Off. is shown as reference h, again in Union Street (but not in the imprint).

Fig. 33. Union Street / New Road. The Copper-Plate Engraving and Printing Office is shown by a star, just after the turnpike gate.

Shortly after, Cooke´s first plan of the Plymouth Breakwater appeared. This engineering project attracted a lot of attention around this time and many works relating to it were published. The Interesting Particulars, relative to that Great National Undertaking, the Breakwater was printed for, and sold by J Johns at Plymouth Dock and John Cooke of Union Street, Stonehouse in 1821. This booklet contains two cartographic works: Cooke’s Guide to Plymouth Sound and Breakwater (27), a small map covering the area from Ram Head and Mew Stone and the course of the river as far as Tor Point with an extra plan below the bottom border - Transverse section of the Breakwater. The imprint is that of M^rs E Nile, again at the address of 48, Union Street. The second work is another fairly detailed engraving of two plans of the proposed breakwater at Plymouth (28). The upper plan: PLYMOUTH BREAKWATER. When finished has John’s signature. The lower plan: Transverse section of the Breakwater as finish'd has Mrs Nile’s imprint.

As early as 1815 there had been a tentative link between Mrs Nile and John Cooke with the announcement of a new edition of the Synopsis (see above) and the Synopsis parts issued at the Copper-Plate Engraving and Printing Office. In 1820 we have three maps with the imprint of Mrs Nile, and all of them associated with John Cooke, and we have a chart Taken in 1817 produced by the Copper Plate Engraving and Printing Office at 48 Union Street which she seems to have owned and which bears the hallmarks of a Cooke plan. A further enigma is that Mrs E Nile only appears with the arrival of John Cooke and after he leaves her “partnership” she is not heard of again.