33 Thomas Kitchin / Thomas Jefferys 1749

In November 1748 a group of London publishers, M Payne and 8 others, issued the first number of a new part-work The Small English Atlas. Whether Payne and his co-publishers finally completed the series is not known, but during the following year Thomas Kitchin and Thomas Jefferys had acquired the publication and produced the first bound editions. According to an advertisement Devon appeared in December 1748 in Part III. Mary Cooper and M Payne were involved in its distribution.

Both Kitchin and Jefferys had been apprenticed to Emanuel Bowen and both were destined to become Geographer to the King, the title Bowen held before them. Kitchin finished his apprenticeship in 1739 and established his own business two years later (see also maps for The London Magazine 34, Dublin edition of The London Magazine 35, England Illustrated 43, and Kitchin´s Pocket Atlas 49).

Jefferys produced a great many maps including Donn’s important map of Devon (see 44 and 45).

The maps for The Small English Atlas were printed four to a plate and Devon would have been printed with Leicester, Somerset and Durham, but no copy of a full plate has been found. Laurie and Whittle were offering the atlas until the early 1820s, probably using sheets acquired when they took over Robert Sayer’s business. Later issues can only be told apart by the wear to the plate.

Size 180 x 135 mm. English Miles (15 = 25 mm).

Map area 110 x 132 mm.  

A Map of DEVONSHIRE (CaOS) and text below map begins DEVONSHIRE Is bounded ...