90 J Walker 1822

Benjamin Crosby (1768-1815), a Yorkshireman, first produced his Pocket Gazetteer in 1808 without maps. After Crosby’s death his assistants Simpkin and Marshall retained their share when the business passed to Baldwin, Cradock and Joy. They were joined by J Bumpus a member of a well-known booksellers founded in 1816. The gazetteer was reissued in both 1815 and 1818; the latter including two general maps. The 1822 edition, in which county maps were first issued, reused earlier title pages, but the date on all dated maps is 1822.

These small county maps for Crosby’s Complete Pocket Gazetteer¹ were engraved by J Walker. Shirley² writes about the confusing number of J Walkers and his John Walker of Wakefield who produced a map of that area and a large folding map of Great Britain is unlikely as the engraver of these small-scale maps. The maps are certainly different to those produced by J and C Walker, even though a few years later the firm of J and C Walker would become famous for a large number of atlases. It has also been suggested that the cartographer for these miniature maps may have been James Walker of Littlehampton.³ Little is known about J Cox the engraver. Probably James Cox, born c.1790 and with numerous addresses in London and aged "about 50" in the 1841 census.⁴ The maps appeared again some ten years later when The Family Topographer was published in seven volumes from 1832 to 1843. A Compendious Account of the Western Circuit, which appeared in 1834, was also a topographical work with maps, the Circuit referring to the judicial area of the Courts of Assize.

Whereas the original maps had information on the size of county, inhabitants and parliamentary information, this was erased when the maps were used by Samuel Tymms. The Scale of Miles was also erased: the scale as drawn gave a distance Exeter-Plymouth of fifteen miles!

Size 120 x 75 mm.                                                                                                                                             Scale of Miles (10 = 25 mm).

DEVONSHIRE. Imprint: London. Publish’d May 1st. 1822, by I Bumpus, No 6 Holborn Bars. under map frame (CeOS). Signatures: J. Walker del. (AeOS) and J. Cox sculp. (EeOS). Scale of Miles (Ee). Panel along lower border with statistical notes.