We have recently been given a 'Morden Miniature' map of Lancashire. It measures approximately 16cm x 20.5cm, and handwritten on the back is the date 1714. Robert Morden (c. 1650 – 1703) was an English bookseller, publisher, and mapmaker, globemaker and engraver. He was among the first successful commercial map makers.
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| Robert Morden's Map of Lancashire 1714 |
The following text is extracted from 'The Printed Maps of Lincolnshire 1576 - 1900 : A Carto-Bibliography', by R. A. Carroll (Lincoln Record Society vol. 84), 1994.
Morden died in 1703, but it is not known how his plates came into the hands of the next owners. There were several editions in 1704 and there were, by then, six partners in the project. In 1708 a new issue of the plates appeared with the assistance of Herman Moll (24). In this item there was no text, a characteristic of several of Moll's own volumes. Finally the plates were used in the part work, which commenced in 1714: Magna Britannia et Hibernia.
Magna Britannia is one of the first works to be issued in serial form. Originally conceived as part of Atlas geographus: or, a compleat system of geography, ancient and modern it began in monthly parts at one shilling each in June, 1708. By the end of 1710 the whole of Europe except Great Britain and Ireland was completed and was to be bound up in two volumes. From January in the following year fifteen monthly parts comprised Asia, immediately followed by a further fifteen parts, which dealt with Africa. This took until December, 1713. Beginning again in March, 1714 America took up one volume made up of seventeen parts, spread over two years. The chief undertakers of this project seem to have been John Morphew and John Nutt and, after the death of Nutt in 1716, his widow Elizabeth. Others whose names appear on the title-pages of the volumes or issues in parts may have been vendors only and never shareholders. John Nicholson, who may have been involved at the start had, by the time of his death in 1717, become owner of all the shares, since his trustees offered them in a trade sale in 1740.
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| Close up of Turton area and surrounding districts |
The original map is available for members to view, and a high resolution scan (600 dpi) is also available.
