Description
The present map has an esteemed genealogy that runs through the biography of one man, although it involved many players over the years. Samuel Holland (1728 – 1801) was easily one of the most consequential and skilled surveyor-cartographers in the history of Canada and United States. Over an active career in North America spanning over 40 years, he was responsible for the first scientific mapping of significant parts of what are today 8 U.S. States and 4 Canadian provinces. Holland was a native of Nijmegen, Netherlands, who honed his skills as a military engineer during the War of the Austrian Succussion.
In 1756, Holland was recruited by the Duke of Richmond, to join the Royal American Regiment, a special corps of the British Army the featured many of Continental European officers (including several stellar mapmakers), to fight in the Seven Years’ War. Stationed in Quebec, Holland allegedly worked with the future explorer James Cook, to make charts of the St. Lawrence River to enable General Wolfe’s fleet to sail up to attack Quebec City.
In 1769, following the British conquest of the heartland of New France, the Montreal-Quebec City Corridor, the regional British commander, General James Murray commissioned Holland and some of his colleagues to make the first scientific survey of the region, predicated upon trigonometrical methods, regulated by astronomical observations. In 1762, this resulted in the ‘Murray Map’, a colossal manuscript executed to a scale of 2,000 feet to the inch and measuring 45 by 36 feet, that was one of the greatest achievements of mapmaking of the Enlightenment Era.
The Murray Map’s coverage closely follows the St. Lawrence from Montreal to Quebec City, and course of the Richelieu River, and while impressively accurate and detailed where it had coverage, its scope did not extend much inland, leaving a great deal of surveying to be done. However, it formed a strong foundation for the modern cartography of Quebec.
In 1764, Britain, which came to control all North America east of the Mississippi, established the General Survey of British North America, which had a mandate to create a complete and scientifically accurate map of all littoral and near coastal areas of these domains. For this purpose, British North America was divided into two parts. Holland was appointed as the Surveyor General of the Northern District of North America, placing him in charge of overseeing the mapping of all the lands north of the Potomac River (while William De Brahm oversaw the Southern District, running from the Potomac to Key West). As some parts of the regions concerned had already been mapped to a high degree of precision, the focus of the General Survey was ‘filling in the gaps’, by making systematic trigonometrical surveys of the areas not yet well mapped.
From 1764 to 1775, Holland led expert teams to chart large parts of Quebec, the Canadian Maritimes and New England, as well as parts of New York and New Jersey.
In Quebec, per the mandate of the General Survey, Holland was to focus his efforts upon mapping the areas not covered by the Murray Map. During the 1767 surveying season, Holland’s teams, lead in the field by his deputies John Pringle and George Sproule, painstakingly mapped the lower St. Lawrence River below Quebec City, so completing the scientific mapping of the coastal areas of ‘Core Quebec’, as represented on the present map. Notably, the coverage did not extend much into the interior, which beyond the old French seigneuries, stripped-shaped farming estates that ran up the from the riverbanks, the land remained largely undeveloped and unmapped.
Fast forward to the end of the American Revolutionary War (1775-83), whereupon thousands of Loyalists were expelled from the United States, compelling many to settle in what remained of British North America. Many Loyalists decided to head for Quebec, the most developed part of these domains. While some ended up in the major cities and towns, others sought to create new farms in the countryside. The British thus decided to open many undeveloped regions to these settlers, giving them free grants of land. This sparked a great boom in surveying in Quebec, especially in what became known as the ‘Eastern Townships’, the area to the interior of the South Shore of the St. Lawrence between Montreal and the Appalachians.
The Constitutional Act of 1791 created Lower Canada (toady’s southern Quebec) and Upper Canada (modern Ontario), that were divided mostly along the Ottawa River. This was done for both for bureaucratic efficiency and to give the Loyalists complete domain over Upper Canada, which was to be a colony dominated by Anglo settlers, while Lower Canada was to be a mixed Anglo-French entity. The Act also had a provision that accelerated the granting of land to Loyalists, intensifying the surveying boom.
Notably, in 1791, Samuel Holland was appointed as Lower Canada’s first surveyor general. While then quite elderly for the time, such that he rarely worked in the field, Holland’s was instrumental in instilling high surveying standards in the colony and mentoring the next generation of mapmakers.
One of the most consequential surveyors of the era in Lower Canada was Jeremiah McCarthy (c. 1758 – 1828), an Irish immigrant and British army veteran who settled in Quebec in 1779. There McCarthy is first recorded as working as surveyor, in 1781, and he subsequently received many commissions to map Loyalist grants. Eventually, he was engaged by the crown to make regional surveys, which from 1791 came under Holland’s oversight.
By 1792, McCarthy had surveyed the entire Côte-du-Sud area, which extended from Lévis to Rivière-du-Loup, and from the shores of the St Lawrence to the Appalachians, including Beauce and much of the Eastern Townships and the parishes of Kamouraska, L’Islet, Montmagny, Lévis, and Bellechasse. Employing triangulation, he laid out townships and cadastral lots for Loyalists, while also reasserting the boundaries of existing seigneuries.
From 1792, McCarthy turned to survey Armagh, Stoneham, and Tewkesbury townships and the Rivière Chaudière up to Lac Mégantic. In 1793, he charted two base lines, one running from Longueuil to the Chaudière and the other between the Rivière Saint-François and the Yamaska River as far as Dunham Township, which proved vital in contextualizing future cadastral mapping.
The Present Map in Focus
In 1802, the year after Samuel Holland’s passing, William Faden, who was then the world’s most important commercial mapmaker, published the first issue of what would be the definitive printed general map of Lower Canada (bearing the imprint date of August 12th, 1802). Faden was given access to manuscript masterplans from the late Holland’s office, although the exact identity of these maps is not known. We do know that grand official masterplans were made in Lower Canada, with a notable earlier such map being: “By order of His Excellency Guy Lord Dorchester…Plan of part of the province of Lower Canada containing the country from the river Montmorency near Quebec… to St. Regis on the Rr. St. Lawrence, and to the township of Buckingham on the Rr. Ottawa…” [1796], drafted by the crown surveyors Samuel Gale and Jean-Baptiste Duberger (Library and Archives Canada: R/300/1795(1796)). It shows many of the same details from recent surveys as the Holland-Faden plan, albeit embracing a partially different scope (extending more west, and not as much east). Please see a link to this work:
The present work, which is the second state of the Holland-Faden map, bearing the imprint date of April 12th, 1813, is identical to the first state of 1802, save for the change in date. The map embraces the populated core of the colony, extending from the Upper Canada border, near the confluence of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers, and down the St. Lawrence as far as the Saguenay and “Rimousky” (Rimouski). The well-settled Montreal-Quebec City Corridor can be seen on the left side, divided into three administrative districts.
The areas immediately hugging the St., Lawrence and Richelieu rivers show the cadastral boundaries of the old French seigneuries, many of which maintain their signature strip shape. Conversely, the newer Loyalist areas of the Eastern Townships, in the interior to the east of the Richelieu River, generally possess a grid form, bearing English names, as recently laid out by crown surveyors. Likewise, many of the divisions beyond the seigneuries on the north shore of the St. Lawrence and in the Ottawa Valley are shown to be mainly areas of Anglo settlement. Some of the cadastral divisions future interesting notes, such as with the “Tract of Land under consideration for endowing an university”, located to the south of Montreal. The map also shows surveying baselines as run by Jeremiah McCarthy in 1785 and 1793, south of the St. Lawrence.
Additionally, significant cities and towns are labelled, forts are marked, while the main roads are delineated, as well as the ancient “Indian Path” running from Longueil down to Lake Champlain.
The Lower Canada-U.S. Boundary from the St. Lawrence to the headwaters of the Connecticut River (being the frontier with New York and Vermont) is well defined, running roughly along the 45th parallel. However, the boundary from New Hampshire all the way up and around almost to the Bay of Fundy is undefined, and is mostly un-surveyed, although the map labels the best route from Fredericton to the St. Lawrence as “Surveyed by Dugald Campbell”. The boundaries of Lower Canada and New Brunswick with New Hampshire and Maine would remain a point of heated dispute until the matter was resolved by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842.
On the topic of the U.S.-British boundary, the map detail an interesting aside, as it showcases the true location of the St. Croix River in detail. During the Treaty of Paris (1783), it was agreed that the St. Croix River would by the boundary between the U.S. and Britain near the Bay of Fundy. However, the Americans, rather creatively, disputed the location of the St. Croix, claiming that the St. John River was the real St. Croix, which would mean that the boundary would move far to the east, deep into British territory. However, Holland’s former deputy, George Sproule, discovered archeological evidence of the location of Samuel de Champlain’s 1603 settlement of Île Sainte-Croix in the British-claimed St. Croix, so proving his country’s case. A note printed on the map, dated 1798, as agreed and signed by both parties, details how the exact border along the true St. Croix was to run.
The War of 1812: The Significance of the Present Second State of the Holland-Faden Map
That William Faden decided to issue a second printing of the Holland map in 1813 was meant to capitalize upon widespread interest in the ongoing War of 1812, during which the United States endeavored to invade and conquer Canada. U.S. attempts to seize Upper Canada during the 1812 campaign season were thwarted by a surprisingly spirited and skilled Anglo-Canadian opposition. It was widely expected that the Americans would seek to strike Montreal, the largest city in the Canadas, the seizure of which would physically sever the Canadas in two, cutting Upper Canada off from communication with Britain. Should this happen, the Americans would likely win the war.
The Americans continued to harbour a (severely misguided) belief that French Canadians, who made up most of the population of Lower Canada, would willingly support the Americans, to get rid of the English colonial “oppressors”, or, at the very least, to sit out the conflict. As it turned out, the Quebecois preferred the ‘devil they knew’ to American republicanism.
In the summer of 1813, U.S. War Secretary John Armstrong devised a strategy, whereby American forces would seek to sever the Canadas in half. One force, departing from the Lake Champlain, would descend the Richelieu River and then turn west to take Montreal. Meanwhile, another army would depart from Sackett’s Harbor, New York, to attack the British side of the St. Lawrence in Upper Canada, before joining their comrades in Montreal. The plan, at least on paper, was strategically sound, as the Americans heavily outnumbered the defenders, who were a motley assortment of British regulars, local volunteer militiamen (including many French Canadians) and Mohawk warriors.
The American forces were beset by infighting, indifferent morale and disorganization, while the Anglo-Canadians were highly motivated and focused. An American army of 2,600 regulars under major General Wade Hampton advanced into Lower Canada, but got a bit sidetracked, ending up far to west of the Richelieu and well south of Montreal, at Ormstown, Lower Canada (in Beauharnois Township on the map). There, at the Battle of Chateauguay (October 26, 1813), they were met by an Anglo-Canadian force of 1,530 men under the French-Canadian commander, Lieutenant Colonel Charles de Salaberry. Much to everyone’s surprise, the enthusiastic defenders decisively defeated Hampton’s lethargic force, so saving Montreal (and perhaps all Canada).
Not long thereafter, Armstrong’s design suffered a terminal defeat when the other American army was defeated at the Battle of Crysler’s Farm (November 11, 1813), near Morrisburg, Upper Canada.
The Anglo-Canadian victory at Chateauguay was important in the grander scheme, as it killed the American’s last best chance to win the war. Britain would take the offensive during the 1814 campaign season, burning Washington, D.C., so leading the conflict to end as a ‘draw’ in 1815, which meant that the Canadas would remain in British hands.
The Issues of the Map
The map ran into several states, produced over period of 41 years by William Faden and his successor James Wyld the Elder. Stevens & Tree identified 6 states (1802, 1813, 1829, 1838, 1840 and 1843), although we are aware of additional issues, with one printed by Faden in 1817, and another printed by Wyld in 1825.
Faden’s cartographically identical early states of 1802 and 1813 (the present) are distinct, as they are true to the image of Loyalist-Holland era Lower Canada. Faden’s final known state, of 1817, is heavily revised with extensive new information south of the St. Lawrence in Lower Canada and promoting the British claims with respect the disputed boundaries with New Hampshire and Maine; these changes are so dramatic that it renders this state as an entirely different map from the 1802/13 editions. Likewise, the states produced by Wyld from 1829 to 1843 furthered this trend, focusing upon the matter of the British-American frontier.
For comparison, please see an example of Wyld’s 1838 edition, courtesy of the David Rumsey Map Collection:
The Holland-Faden map’s depiction of Lower Canada was technically superseded by the grand map of Joseph Bouchette (Holland’s son-in-law), the Topographical Map of the Province of Lower Canada (London, 1815), also published by Faden, which was based upon fresh surveys. Please see an example of the Bouchette map, also courtesy of the David Rumsey Map Collection:
Yet, the Holland map, as issued by Faden and Wyld, remained the most popular cartographic representation of Lower Canada for some years, in part due the great cost and impractical size of the Bouchette map (which was over 3 metres long).
A Note on Rarity
The 1802 and 1813 Faden editions of Holland’s map are rare, and examples seldom appear on the market, while the very different Wyld editions are much more common. We can trace 9 institutional examples of the 1813 edition, held by the David Rumsey Map Collection; British Library; Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec; University of Southern Maine, Osher Map Library; University of Toronto, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library; Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt; Württembergische Landesbibliothek (Stuttgart); McGill University Library; and the Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada.
References: David Rumsey Map Collection: 10753.001; British Library: Maps 70700.(11.); OCLC: 556442170, 498126716, 1288445975, 1225625284, 49106104, 1007298844; [On Background:] Stephen J. HORNSBY, Surveyors of Empire: Samuel Holland, J.F.W. Des Barres and the Making of the Atlantic Neptune (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2011), esp. pp. 25-30, 58-62; Alexander JOHNSON, The First Mapping of America: The General Survey of British North America (London: I.B. Tauris, 2017), esp. pp. 24-6, 83-7, 259, 262; Henry STEVENS & Roland TREE, ‘Comparative Cartography’, in R.V. TOOLEY (ed.), The Mapping of America (London: Holland Press, 1985), no. 28b (pp. 66-7).
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